How to Treat a Seizure

Video Transcript

CAPT. JOE BRUNI: Hi. I am Capt. Joe Bruni with over three decades of firefighting and emergency medical service experience. What I am going to cover is the action and steps to take for someone who is experiencing seizure activity. A seizure can be a pretty scary event. The very first step is if witness or see the patient start to go into the seizure activity is to try and prevent them from hurting themselves. So, first and foremost, we would try and lower the victim to the ground face up. After we get the victim lowered to the ground, we may want to try and put something in between their teeth so we do not have the person injure themselves. It can be something as simple as a rolled up piece of gauze or an individual's wallet. At no point in time do you ever want to stick your finger into a seizure patient's mouth. Again, the seizure patient can experience some pretty rigid and scary activity for rescuers as well. Basically, we would take and maintain control of the seizure patient's head to keep their head from banging off the ground and keep the patient from injuring themselves. As a rescuer, you may experience bluish lips known as cyanosis, because most seizure patients are not breathing while they are in seizure activity. When the seizure activity ceases, we would want to provide support and ensure that the patient is breathing on their own and activate the emergency response system. So the first step when we witness someone go into seizure activity is to gently lower them to the ground to keep them and prevent them from hurting themselves. The second step would be to place something in the mouth, if it all possible, to get it in, but not by forcing the mouth open with the finger. At no time would you place a finger in a seizure patient's mouth. The third step would be to maintain support for the head and neck while the seizure activity continues. After the seizure activity ceases, we would ensure that the patient is now breathing on their own.