-> I once had a patient seizure (intermittently, 90 seconds of seizure
-> followed by 5-10 seconds of non-seizure) for 45 minutes until the
-> ambulance arrived (I was providing first aid coverage to a
-> campground in rural Quebec), the pattern continued all the way to
-> hospital (about 1 hour - 1:15 transport time).  The patient was
-> conscious the whole time, asking me to do something to stop the
-> seizures.  Since I was (and am) not equipped or trained in the use
-> of that type of medication, there was nothing I could do.  The
-> ambulance was BLS, so there was not much they could do ei
-> It turned out that the cause of this activity was a combination of
-> some fad dieting, use of stimulants (primarily caffeine) to stay up
-> all the time, and lack of sleep.
 
I had a patient seizing very much the way you described your patient...
He would fight every effort of EMS and F.D.'s attempts to help him in
between seizing...but couldn't verbally communicate with us. This was
going on in a parking lot outside a grocery store, with a large crowd
gathering to watch, so to protect the pt. from the asphalt and to
protect his privacy, we fought him onto the stretcher and loaded him in
the box. As my paramedic got med control online, the patient seemed to
be gaining more control in between seizing, and finally stated he has a
history of seizures and was just about to take his evening medicine
when he started seizing...(we had already found a medicine bottle in
his clothing with 3 pills in it, but no label on the bottle). He didn't
want us to transport him, and instead to let him take his medicine.
Because he was still seizing pretty good, we had to get med control to
permit us to aid him in taking his pill. The doc let us, and about 3
minutes after taking his med, he quickly began gaining control, and in
about 8 minutes, he was seizure-free (that was the quickest time I've
seen effects from an oral pill). The pt. had us call his friend at home
for a ride, and he AMA'd. Med control had no prob. with this. But, at
the same time, before the pt. could communicate with us, the FD was
trying to restrain the pt. onto the cot (aside from using the regular
straps, which is fine, they attempted to cravat his wrists to the
stretcher. In my opinion, that was getting into the gray area of
unnecessary restraint...)
 
Anyways, the whole point to that extremely long story was the unusual
LOC and type of seizures the pt. had. I guess the total seizure time
was almost an hour...yet, for most of the hour, he was able to verbally
communicate with us..kinda suprised me. The type was kinda between
petit and grand mal..
Chris
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