Blog #153: Safety Equipment for Epilepsy

 

 

   I recently sponsored a booth at the Epilepsy Foundation Los Angeles annual Epilepsy Walk Los Angeles. Each year it is held in the huge parking lot of the famous Rose Bowl Stadium in Pasadena, California. At this venue I discuss epilepsy with the very knowledgeable crowd of several thousand people touched by epilepsy in some way. I also discuss and sell my novel, DINGS. It’s a strong mother’s story as she defends her bright 8-year-old who the school is about to send back to the second grade—he’s just not keeping up with his third-grade schoolwork. The reason is that his complex partial non-convulsive seizure blank outs are not recognized by any of the adults around him. His friends and playmates think that he seems weird sometimes.

 

   Booths nearby to mine at the Epilepsy Walk were sponsored by drug companies, epilepsy groups and educational organizations. We all were proponents of advancing epilepsy knowledge. I enclose a picture of one product which I thought to be very helpful with the epilepsy population. It’s a seatbelt cover. It alerts any person who may attempt to help a person strapped in an automobile who seems in distress or unresponsive. It reads: “Individual with Severe Seizure Disorder. May be non-verbal or Unable to Respond Appropriately. EMERGENCY  MEDICAL INFORMATION INSIDE.” This seat belt cover can be ordered from Jazz Pharmaceuticals.

It could have clarified one driver’s condition to responding police who could have acted appropriately rather than by attacking the afflicted person. The Connecticut man had suffered a complex partial seizure while driving and drove his auto into a bank of shrubbery. I described this situation in my Blog #45 titled Police Sued: They Failed to Recognize Epileptic Confusion and Tasered Man, January 22, 2015. He remained behind the steering wheel out of contact with his environment. Police arrived and asked the driver to step out of the car. He didn’t respond. He stared ahead gripping the steering wheel. When he “refused”, police attempted to pull him out. Then the man became aggressive. The police tasered him while still confused and stuporous. The man sued the police.

Another useful piece of equipment was a video camera with 4 monitors that could be placed in various places around the house. The camera records a child or adult and when a seizure occurs it is more likely to be seen in a monitor for a quick response. Approximately $400. Learn more at Matt@semialert.com.

Lance Fogan, M.D. is Clinical Professor of Neurology at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA. His hard-hitting emotional family medical drama, “DINGS, is told from a mother’s point of view. “DINGS” is his first novel. Aside from acclamation on internet bookstore sites, U.S. Report of Books, and the Hollywood Book Review, DINGS has been advertised in recent New York Times Book Reviews, the Los Angeles Times Calendar section and Publishers Weekly. DINGS teaches epilepsy and is now available in eBook, audiobook, soft and hard cover editions.