Experiencing a seizure or seeing another person else suffer one can be frightening. But that’s exactly why it’s so important to keep calm and follow the right steps for seizure first aid. Taking the right precautions can help keep a person having a seizure safe – and you might be surprised to hear what is and isn’t the correct response when a person is having a seizure.

In this article, we’ll discuss the rules of seizure first aid, including what symptoms can indicate a seizure and what to do during and after a seizure.

What is a seizure?

As you know, your brain functions by using electrical signals to transmit messages. During a seizure, the brain experiences bursts or storms of electrical activity. Naturally, since your brain controls all of your body, these unexpected electrical storms can have wide-ranging effects.

Not all seizures affect the entire brain at once. Sometimes seizures affect just one area, and in other cases, they begin in a small area and then spread to the rest of the brain.

What can cause a seizure?

There are many reasons why people may have seizures. Most people are familiar with epilepsy, which is a condition featuring seizures. But there are other causes, too.

Older people sometimes begin having seizures due to problems with the blood flow in their brain. Sometimes this is because a stroke has caused damage to the brain.

You might be surprised to hear that seizures can also accompany dementia, which is also a condition that affects the brain. So, any person with dementia and their family should be aware of their increased chance of having seizures.

Lastly, some seizures happen for reasons that doctors can’t yet identify.

How to identify a seizure

There are different types of seizures, and they can appear very different to observers. In fact, many seizures involve symptoms that might not make most people think of seizures at all. And to know when you need to provide seizure first aid, you’ll have to be able to identify these less obvious types of seizures, too.

Tonic-clonic seizures are the best-known type of seizure. A person having a tonic-clonic seizure will lose consciousness, and their body will become stiff. They’ll typically fall to the ground and then their muscles will begin jerking.

This is the picture that’s generally associated with the word ‘seizure.’ However, many other types of seizures have subtler symptoms. Indeed, elderly people with seizures are less likely to experience tonic-clonic seizures and more likely to experience focal seizures, which involve just one part of the brain.

In a focal seizure, a person is usually not fully unconscious. They may remain standing or sitting but become confused and disoriented. Because of the electronic activity in the brain, they may move oddly or experience strange smells, tastes or other sensations. They sometimes also have unusual emotional reactions or feelings of fear or dread.

It’s easy to see why this type of seizure is often not properly identified in older people. These symptoms can be incorrectly interpreted as signs of dementia.

According to the NHS guidance on epilepsy, other seizure symptoms can include:

Loss of bladder control
Muscle looseness – the opposite of the stiffness we’ve already discussed
Tingling or numbness
A lack of awareness of surroundings or one’s own actions
Instinctive and unintentional movements, like walking
A period of confusion following the seizure.

Keeping calm – and what not to do

Another surprising fact about seizures is that sometimes doing less to help is better than doing more. People watching a seizure can feel so panicked about it that they may end up doing unhelpful things. For example:

Don’t put anything in the mouth of a person having a seizure.
Don’t try to hold down a person having a tonic-clonic seizure to prevent their body from shaking and jerking.
Don’t offer food or water until confusion from the seizure has truly passed. A person who is not fully aware after a seizure can’t safely eat or drink.

Instead, it’s important for you to stay calm and let the seizure run its course (except in rare cases when the seizure does not stop – we’ll discuss that more below). In many cases, you won’t need to. However, before we go any further, let’s discuss …

When to call 999

According to the NHS guidance on seizure first aid and care, you need to call 999 if:

The person has never had a seizure before
The person becomes badly injured during the seizure, such as hitting their head while falling to the ground
The person can’t breathe well after the seizure or doesn’t entirely regain consciousness
The seizure lasts longer than their usual seizures, or longer than 5 minutes if you don’t know the usual length of their seizures
The person has several seizures back to back, without properly returning to consciousness.

Some other sources, such as the CDC, mention a need to call emergency services if the person having a seizure is pregnant or was in water during the seizure – which could lead to accidentally breathing in water.

The rules

If none of the above points apply, follow the three rules below.

1. Stay with the person having the seizure until they are fully recovered.

That’s right – one of the most important things you can do is simply ensure the person having a seizure isn’t alone. Remain calm and make sure others around you are calm, too. If a crowd is gathering, try to disperse it as much as possible.

While you are staying by the person’s side, you also need to time their seizure. This is because, as you’ve seen, seizures that last too long are a medical emergency.

Another step you can take is checking, if possible, to see whether the person having a seizure is wearing a medical bracelet with instructions.

In some cases, people with seizures have emergency medication to use if the seizure goes on for too long. If you have a loved one who has been prescribed this medication, ask them to explain how and when you should use it.

2. Make sure the person having a seizure is safe.

When you’re trying to keep a person having a seizure safe, you want to try to move dangerous things away from them rather than move the person. So, remove hot, sharp or otherwise dangerous objects from their surroundings. Push furniture away too if they’re having a tonic-clonic seizure and might knock their body against it.

Of course, sometimes the person having a seizure does need to be moved because they’re in a dangerous location. If they are next to a hot cooker or non-moveable heater, or if they’re in the street or in water, you may have no choice but to move them gently. Still, don’t try to restrain them or fight against the jerking movements of a tonic-clonic seizure.

If the person is having a tonic-clonic seizure, it’s often a good idea to put something soft under their head so they don’t injure it while their body is jerking.

The NHS also suggests trying to loosen a tight tie or collar to help the person breathe, and you may want to remove eyeglasses to prevent breakage.

And if the person having a seizure is still partially aware, try to encourage them to sit down to prevent the likelihood of tripping and falling.

3. If the person is on the floor, move them onto their side after the seizure ends

Everyone should be familiar with the recovery position. This is a position where someone is lying down on their side, and it’s important in first aid because it prevents them from choking and helps them to breathe.

If a person’s seizure has left them lying on the floor, you’ll want to move their body into this sideways position to help them breathe.

What to expect after the seizure ends

After a seizure, most people are left feeling confused and distressed. This is especially true for elderly people, who may remain confused for longer than younger people. You’ll want to give them calm verbal reassurance that they are safe.

For some types of seizures, like tonic-clonic ones, the person may lose bladder control. You’ll want to help them minimise embarrassment from this – which is one reason why it’s good not to have a crowd watching.

It can take some time for a person to return to full awareness after a seizure. Stay with them until they are completely conscious and alert again.

How seizure alarms can help

We’ve mentioned already that seizures can start in one area of the brain and grow to affect the entire brain.

That initial seizure can act as a warning sign for the person with a seizure, giving them a few seconds to prepare for a full tonic-clonic seizure to hit. The odd feelings of a focal seizure in this situation are sometimes referred to as an ‘aura.’

It’s clear, then, that a person who has seizures of this type needs to be able to call for help and raise the alarm fast before the full seizure strikes. And a device perfectly suited for this is a seizure alarm or seizure alert.

SureSafe’s seizure alarm has a one-touch SOS button that can be pressed to summon help in the moments after an aura begins and before a person loses consciousness. This alarm doesn’t work by detecting the jerking movements of a seizure – rather, it empowers the person with seizures to call for help when they know something is wrong.

This functionality is crucial because not all seizures involve the shaking motions of a tonic-clonic seizure. For seizures where jerking motions are not involved, other alarm options are needed – like our simple SOS button.

This one-touch button can also be great for focal seizures in the elderly. Since these seizures typically involve feelings of confusion, a person experiencing this type of seizure may not be able to operate a phone. But a one-touch SOS button is simpler – and easier for a person to use if they’re not able to think clearly.

Our seizure alarms have a second line of defence, too. They feature automatic fall detection. That means the alarm is constantly sensing its own movement, trying to judge whether its wearer has fallen. If the alarm does decide it has detected a fall, it will call for help all by itself – even if the wearer is unconscious.

Obviously, this can be a great option for anyone at risk of falling during their seizures.

SOS button and fall alert protection for people with seizures

At SureSafe, we’re experts in providing personal alarm devices like seizure alerts and personal alarms for elderly people. That’s why we’ve designed our seizure alarms with functions that allow anyone experiencing seizures to call for help fast – or even to get help if they’ve fallen to the ground and are unconscious. And unlike alarms just for tonic-clonic seizures, our alarms don’t detect the shaking movements of that type of seizure, so they’re great for people with all kinds of seizures.

How can a SureSafe seizure alarm help protect you or a loved one? If you’re curious to know more, just give us a call on 0808 189 1671 or speak to us via our live chat. You can also request a call back.