SUDEP tagged posts

SEIZURES ARE A JOKE

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Once a week I Google “Seizure” and “News” and see what I get. Most of the time, the results are pretty predictable. Someone is touting a new product for epilepsy. Someone is trying to get support for a new medical marijuana bill. Someone makes the local news because some annoying story about how they were mistreated or fired over epilepsy. However, once in a while I find something completely unexpected.

Maggie O’Conner was walking her dog in Cochester, England, when she had a seizure. It happens. As an epileptic I am sympathetic. But the two people who pulled out their iphones to watch her and make fun of her were apparently not so sympathetic (1).

Ms. O’Conner woke up to see the two men filming her...

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RIK MAYALL: Falling Down Funny

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Rik Mayall died yesterday. I was a huge fan. In the event you are too young to be familiar with Rik Mayall, or if you are not a fan of British comedy, he was the creator of “The Young Ones.” He played Lord Flashheart in “Black Adder.” He was Drop Dead Fred in the movie of the same name. He was great, a very well respected comedian in the U.K.

Rik Mayall died after a seizure. He became a seizure patient after an accident in 1998 left him in a coma for several days. “Sudden Unexpected Death From Epilepsy” took a comic genius.

(Edit: I originally posted this after Mr. Mayall’s death. Peter Richardson, a friend of his whose son was one of the last people to see him alive said that “it was a seizure of some sort.” Mr. Mayall’s wife now says that it was a heart attack...

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I THINK I’M DYING

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I went on vacation with some friends last week. One of them told me the story of his neighbor, Patrick. Patrick had died of “Sudden Unexpected Death In Epilepsy” (SUDEP) a couple of weeks earlier. It is a horrible story and, out of respect for the family, I don’t wish to go into much detail. Suffice to say, I contacted the family and they are private people who are dealing with unimaginable tragedy.

The point is, during the course of that conversation with my friends, our talks turned to the subject of death and epilepsy. My friends, none of whom are epileptic, really don’t understand the relationship seizure patients have with death.

Those of us who have to deal with the fact that we might have a seizure today, know that death is a very real possibility every time we have a sei...

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