Now, let's cover seizures for the adult in what to do when it happens in the workplace.
So, when a person goes into a seizure, they could have gone into that for so many different
reasons its unbelievable. So, to focus on why it happened is not the bigger point, the
fact is, is recognizing that it did happen. We saw that she went into what we call a tonic
state, hands were gripped, they were pointed towards her body, she was seizing actively,
and then went into what we call a postictal state or a relaxed recovery state. While the
patient is actually seizing, its important to do a few things. Make sure that whatever
is around them is not going to actually harm them more. So, if there are sharp objects
that they can actually bump into when they were seizing, we want to either move the object
or either move the patient, so that they don't get her further. If they seem to be having
what we call a tonic clonic seizure where their contracting and relaxing, contracting
and relaxing, they might be hanging their head on a hard surface like a cement floor.
It is important for us to protect their head which we can do by cupping their hands to
just give them a little cushion in, so that while they're actively seizing, they're not
also causing a head injury. Now, once a patient has come out of seizure, we need to assess
a couple things. One, has EMS been activated? As soon as we see that they are in a seizure,
and we don't know that there is an ongoing epileptic they don't have any standing rules,
we're gonna call 911. But if we are near the patient, and we can send somebody to do that,
we will be using that time down to assess them for whether or not they're breathing,
or whether they are moving and beginning to come back to consciousness. If this patient
is not breathing and not moving, and doesn't respond to our taps and shouts, we're gonna
go right into the CPR and call for an AED. If this person starts to breathe which is
fairly normal during the postictal state, we're going to assess them to see is this
agonal respiration's or are they breathing more in a corrective measure. If they are
beginning to breathe, then we're gonna go ahead and do the recovery position to help
them keep their airway opening clear while they recover from the seizure, and we wait
for EMS to arrive. The way that we do this is we elevate the arm closest to us up over
their head. We bring the farthest leg away over, and we cross their legs. Grabbing their
wrist in their hip underneath their head and neck, we roll the patient onto their side.
We lift their head, untuck their hand, and bend their arm up underneath their head. Notice
how they now have a face that's pointing towards the ground, allowing gravity to help clear
their airway. We then bring their knee up as a kickstand to help protect them all the
way over. If they seem to be showing signs of shock, like cool, pale, sweaty, rapid pulse,
we can cover them with a sheet quarter blanket, and allow them to recover. While we're waiting
for EMS to arrive, we're gonna be assessing for breathing and for recovery, a sign maybe
they're talking to us, maybe they're saying what happened, maybe they're saying oh my
head really hurts, but any of that stuff is good signs, that they're recovering out of
the seizure. Make sure you understand that a seizure patient is low on oxygen, they're
confused, they had an electrical storm in their brain, and they might be confused, they
could even be combative, they might wanna try to get up, they don't know where they're
at, and that can last for a few minutes. So just don't try to hold them them down during
a seizure, don't stop them from seizing, just help support them and protect them during
the seizure, and help protect them for more serious situations like cardiac arrest while
we await EMS to arrive.