Several years ago, I was working in the ICU at one of our local hospitals.  We got a call that a fifteen year-old girl was being transferred to our facility after being found in cardio-pulmonary arrest at her home and being defibrillated (shocked) for ventricular fibrillation.  She was intubated and on an intravenous medication to raise her very low blood pressure.  When she arrived, we stabilized her and a neurologist was consulted because she was not at all responsive.  I'll never forget what happened when her mother arrived.  (she had been flown in by helicopter and her mom drove.)  She practically ran to the bedside of her comatose daughter and crawled right into bed next to her to hold her in her arms.  "Wake up, baby.  Wake up for mommy," she said. 

I didn't have any children of my own yet but this nonetheless effected me deeply.  This mother so loved her child and was absolutely broken by seeing her so close to death.  Over the course of the next couple days, it was confirmed that this beautiful fifteen year-old girl was brain dead and her family made the courageous decision to donate her organs.  I still remember standing by her bedside as her father, mother, and older brother walked out of her room after saying their final goodbyes.  The would not see her again until the funeral after her organ donation surgery was completed and she was send to the local funeral home.  While it was never definitively determined what the cause of death was, the girl did have a history of seizures.  However, she hadn't had one for many years and was on no medication for prevention of them.  The assumption is that she had a grand mal seizure and was not breathing effectively afterwards.  This likely happened in the wee hours of the morning and she was not found until it was realized her alarm was going off and she was not getting up.  This story made such a deep impression on me that I have never forgotten it.  In fact, I've been thinking about it more than ever lately.

My four year-old is having an EEG and a CAT scan on Friday.  Over the course of the last couple weeks, I have come to realize that she is having what are called "Absence Seizures."  Essentially, she blanks out and cannot be roused for about twenty seconds.  Then, she comes back around like nothing has happened.  Some children who have these type of seizures ougrow it prior to adulthood.  Others go on to have grand mal seizures and require life-long medication.  Of course, I'm also freaked out by the most sobering possible cause of the seizures (although unlikely)-a brain tumor.  I'm anxious to get the testing over and just know more about what's going on.  All this on top of my continuing problems with "morning" (all day) sickness and slow recovery from back surgery in May.  What next?

Tags: seizures, worry

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