Managing Epilepsy During COVID-19 Crisis

COVID-19 is likely to result in busier emergency rooms. There will be many more patients than the doctors and nurses usually see so expect waits. Also, emergency rooms will have sick people and you can pick up illnesses there! Try to avoid emergency rooms and urgent care clinics as much as you can. This will reduce the risk of you or a loved one contracting COVID–19.

• If you think you need to be seen urgently, try to talk to your doctor’s office first if it’s safe to do so.

Despite planning, epilepsy is not predictable. The following are examples of when you may need to go to an emergency room:

• A seizure with loss of consciousness longer than 5 minutes that has not stopped and no rescue medicine is able to be taken at home.
• Seizures continue after a person has taken a rescue medicine.
  • Remember – first give the rescue medicine enough time to work!
  • How long the rescue medicine takes may vary by the drug taken or the form, whether rectal, nasal, or under the tongue or between the cheek and gum.
• Seizures happen in a different pattern than usual, are longer than usual, and are not responding to a rescue medicine.
• Seizure emergency that can’t be treated safely at home – for example a person has seriously injured themselves or is having trouble breathing.
• Seizure where someone has hit their head very hard.

"24 Hours In The COVID-19 Ward With Marie"
In a blog on Ring14 USA's website, Yssa DeWoody writes about her family’s recent stay in a COVID-19 hospital ward when her daughter Marie was fighting different infections. Reflecting on her experience, Yssa created a new acronym for actions families with medically fragile children should take during the pandemic: Prepare Protect Expectations (PPE). She calls it “a spin-off of the all too scarce Personal Protective Equipment.”

Marie has a rare chromosomal disorder called Ring 14 syndrome. The disorder and it’s underlying conditions like a compromised pulmonary system, intractable epilepsy, and intellectual disabilities, put her at high risk for a severe case of COVID-19.