The Scariest Moment of My Life

Every year before Christmas break, my high school had an annual talent show. My two friends, Emma and Hannah, and I sang in the show together for 3 years. The rush we got from being on stage in front of our entire school, getting to do something we love together felt more than amazing. Each year we became more and more comfortable with singing together on stage. Our last year meant the most to us being that it was our senior year and we wanted it to be memorable. We practiced constantly and were more than ready to get up on stage for the last time, or so we thought. We had been successfully singing our song, getting a great reaction from the audience; however, as we finished the song no one was clapping. We were so confused, everyone looked stunned. In that moment I went to stand up, and I realized my friend Hannah looked terrified: she was starting to get a seizure. My friend who happened to be sitting in the front row of the auditorium jumped on stage and caught her in the air before she hit the ground. As she seized, Emma and I were speechless. We did not know what to do and before I knew it, someone had taken my hand and was leading me off the stage as they abruptly ended the talent show and sent everyone back to their classrooms. Everything happened so fast that day, from making sure Hannah was alright, to receiving multiple hugs from both friends and teachers, to leaving school early still in shock.

Hannah had only had one other seizure before in her life and she had a mild case of epilepsy. She took medication every day for it and the day of the talent show, she had forgotten to take it that morning. Even though this was most likely the reason for her seizure that day, I still wanted to know more about her condition and if anything else could have contributed to it that day.

Epilepsy is a condiMigräneanfalltion of the brain that causes seizures and affects the nervous system. Hannah had only experienced one other seizure in her life which doesn’t technically make her epileptic because one is usually diagnosed after experiencing two or more seizures spaced out by at least 24 hours. A common trigger for having a seizure can be missing doses of medicine, however missing a single does usually does not affect the person; this was not the case for my friend. The seizure could have also been triggered by dehydration and the exposure to the bright and flashing lights on the stage. When Hannah’s seizure started, Emma and I had not noticed since we were beside her. However, when I watched the video of us singing for the first time, I had noticed that she had stopped snapping her fingers along with me and Emma. Before someone has a seizure, she may have difficulty talking and have a lack of movement. This explains why Hannah stopped singing and snapping at the end of the song. Her seizure was followed by convulsions and twitching movements, and luckily my friend who jumped on stage got her to her side immediately. After the incident, Hannah was confused and had a loss of memory; she barely remembered even singing the song and was wondering if we got to finish it. During epileptic seizures, loss of consciousness and awareness is very common.

Unfortunately, epilepsy affects about 150,000 Americans. The seriousness of the epilepsy ranges from person to person. My friend did not have one thing that actually caused her epileptic seizures, however some people get seizures because of previous head injury, infection, tumors, or through genetics. People who are diagnosed with epilepsy face many changes in their lives. Like my friend Hannah, after one has a seizure he or she loses his or her driver’s license and cannot drive for at least six months without having another seizure. This can be quite an adjustment especially if transportation is key to getting to school or a job.

Learning more about epilepsy has made me realize how serious of a disease it is and how much it can affect people. Even though I had to witness a very scary experience with my friend, it opened my eyes to how symptoms of certain diseases can come and go at any point in time.

 

https://www.epilepsysociety.org.uk/living-epilepsy#.V9TDOZMrJsO

http://www.healthline.com/health/epilepsy/facts-statistics-infographic

http://www.epilepsy.com/learn/epilepsy-101/what-causes-epilepsy-and-seizures

One thought on “The Scariest Moment of My Life

  1. Pengji Wei

    Hi Alyssa.
    After I read your blog, I can feel that moment you have experienced. That is really scary when you are performing on a stage. Also this is my first time heard how serious this epilepsy is. And this epilepsy really could affect a person’s life. And I am thinking that maybe your friend got the epilepsy due to the high pressure? So after I read your blog, my head occurred a question is that is there any treatment or prevention for epilepsy? But after I research online, I found that, the cause is often unclear, so there is no good way to prevent it. But sometimes, the epilepsy are caused by head injury, so may be when people doing outdoor sports, people can wear a helmet or some protection wears. And here is the link I found. http://www.webmd.com/epilepsy/tc/epilepsy-prevention

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