Premergency First Aid, CPR and AED Manual

6 Medical Emergencies

Seizures A seizure, or convulsion, is a temporary, abnormal electrical activity in the brain causing an alteration in a person’s level of consciousness. Seizures are characterized by a sudden loss of consciousness and severe uncoordinated twitching of the body’s muscles (convulsion) and the patient may salivate or stop breathing for a few seconds. Seizures can be caused by a condition the patient was born with, such as epilepsy. They can also be caused by an old or new brain injury, low blood sugar, high fevers, strokes, overdoses, or poisoning. A generalized seizure typically includes convulsing of all the body’s muscles and usually last 3 to 5 minutes, sometimes longer. In other cases, the patient may experience brief periods of an altered mental state where, although they are conscious, they seem to stare at nothing and do not respond to people around them. In a partial seizure there may be a change in the patient’s levels of consciousness.

Symptoms can include weakness, numbness, and dizziness. Partial seizures can cause twitching in different parts of the body but not like the all over muscle twitches of a generalized seizure. There are typically four stages to a seizure. Many times a patient will experience a warning of the coming seizure. This is called an aura. The patient can also experience a tonic phase. Usually lasting only a few seconds, it is characterized by the muscles becoming tense and the patient going rigid and trembling. The patient may bite their tongue or become incontinent (lose control of their bladder or bowel). In a tonic-clonic seizure , a patient will experience periods of rigidity and relaxation as the muscles tense and relax. This usually lasts from 1 to 3 minutes. During a tonic-clonic seizure, the patient will be breathing very fast (hyperventilating), sweating, and drooling.

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