Forwarded for Omaha: TV Doctors are incompetent when dealing with epileptics

[elfs]

The Epilepsy Foundation of America reviewed scenes from 59 television episodes from "Grey's Anatomy," "House, M.D.," and "Private Practice" and the last five seasons of "ER" in which seizures were portrayed. The conclusion? TV doctors depict first aid practices that are incompetent and dangerous:

The study found that inappropriate practices, including holding the person down, trying to stop involuntary movements or putting something in the person's mouth, occurred in 25 cases, nearly 46 percent of the time. First aid management was shown appropriately in 17 seizures, or about 29 percent of the time. Appropriateness of first aid could not be determined in 15 incidents of seizures, or 25 percent.

I mean, come on, how hard can this be? If the victim is standing up when the seziure happens, guide him to the floor. Put a pillow or folded-up jacket under the head to keep him from hitting it on the ground and injuring his head, neck, or airway during involuntary movements. If you don't know the victim, dial 911 (or the appropriate code for your country) and clear the area around the victim to keep him and bystanders from interacting.

(HT to anonymous.)

Comments

[blaisepascal]

In the hopes that I'll never need to use the information, how should a lay rescuer move a victim of a seizure event? In the "I can't move that cast iron radiator away from their head, can I move their head away from the cast iron radiator?" type of situation?

[elfs.livejournal.com]

Maybe it's just been my experience with Omaha, but the average epileptic who's survived a number of seziures has already demonstrated their ability to withstand the throes of epilepsy. Usually, I just grab Omaha by the belt and whatever she's resting her head on to slide her away from whatever might be dangerous.

[drewkitty.livejournal.com]

Generally speaking, patients should not be moved without good cause.

Blanket drag, clothes drag, and foot drag are all accepted techniques for short distance emergency moves. I once tore a student's shirt demonstrating the clothes drag. Both blanket and clothes drag allow some protection for the cervical spine, which is important if a fall is not witnessed or head/neck/back in jury is suspected.

Care must be taken with all to keep from injuring the person, but especially the foot drag as the head tends to drag and wobble up and down. On the other hand, the foot drag is the only technique that works without equipment when the patient weighs >2x what you do.

Short moves can also be accomplished by grasping at the hip and shoulder, this is how you roll a patient on their side.

The most important point (after not injuring yourself, of course) is to protect the head.

Emergency move skills are no fun to teach as they, unlike most other first aid skills, involve some small risk of personal injury if you do it wrong -- just as from picking up or shoving around any other 100 to 300 lb object, but in this case it happens to be a person who could also get hurt.