I took my class into the WAC lab to work on a project last night. Midway through the class, I heard a loud thunk from across the room, followed by some gasps and a few OMG!s. I rushed across the lab (there are two connecting rooms - I was in the other one) to see what had happened and found that a student (not from my class) had fallen from his chair and was having a seizure. I told one of the students to move the chairs away from him and ran out into the hallway to call for security & 911 (there's an emergency call button outside the lab). The paramedics showed up a few minutes after the student's seizure had ended - as soon as he saw them, he got up and tried to run off, but his knees buckled and he went down again. The paramedics tried to help him, but he kept yelling about how he didn't want any help. After about ten minutes, he was able to get up again - he pushed through the crowd and took off out of the lab (he even left his stuff). The paramedics said they weren't going to do anything further because he was combative, so they left. The lab manager and security looked for the student throughout the school, but couldn't find him.
My class ended shortly after that and I ended up leaving without knowing what had happened to the student. I heard this morning that he came back an hour later to collect his things and didn't want to talk to anyone; I also heard that last night was the third time the student had had a seizure in the lab and the third time he refused treatment (apparently, he once got into an argument with the paramedics and additional security had to be brought in to diffuse the situation). A few of the lab assistants who were there during the other times said he doesn't have any health insurance, so that's why he always refuses treatment. Another mentioned that he once said that he doesn't trust doctors. Obviously, this information is coming from secondhand sources, so who knows what's really true... regardless, it was all very scary and sad (and if the insurance part is true... could we please get some damn universal health care going so that things like this don't have to happen?!?)
5 comments:
Wow! That is amazing.
And yes, just another reason why health care is needed.
Yikes. The combative attitude could be related to the seizure itself - we have an admin. assistant who is epileptic, and whenever she seizes (once every few months), once she comes to she's very angry and aggressive and refuses treatment. Then she fully recovers about half an hour later and apologizes to everybody. It's partly that she doesn't manage her illness very well, but mostly that that's just how she comes out of a seizure.
That must have been terrifying. The saddest part is the student's reaction. Hope he gets the help he needs soon.
Yikes! How scary. I guess he's at an age where you can't follow up with the parents, right?
@Pilgrim/Heretic: I don't know the student (I've only seen him around school), so I don't know if that's the situation or not -- but it sounds very similar to what happened with him (and what had happened previously). I think the scariest part for everyone is not knowing what's going on -- if the staff at least knew that's just how he comes out of seizures or that he doesn't have insurance (or whatever the case), things may not be as crazy/scary.
@Andria: He's in his 20s, so he's definitely past the age where you have to contact the parents... and since he wasn't taken to the hospital, his emergency contact wasn't called. We still don't know what happened for sure b/c he won't talk to anyone about it.
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