Epilepsy - Need some guidance

[Pedagog]

Hi all, not entirely childminding related, but I will have loco -parentis of this child. I run a youth group and last night agreed to take on a new child, he has Epilepsy, ADHD and Autistic traits. Well the autism and ADHD we are used too a lot of our members fall in to these categories. But epilepsy is something I have little experience of.
This young man has a VNS (Vagus Nerve Stimulation) fitted and I will at some point be receiving training in this.

Does anybody have any advice or personal experience of this?

Thanks

[emmadines]

all I was ever told to do was to place the person having a fit into the recovery position (do not place anything in the mouth especually fingers (to stop swallowing of tongue) as you could loose your fingers)and allow the fit to finish, some are on supositories (sp?) if they dont stop fitting but not all (and you would have to be trained to use them.


other then that I think it was after 2-5 mins of constant fitting call the amberlance...

hope that helps?

[Pedagog]

Thanks for that, Apparently since having his VNS fitted he has not had any major fits, so hopefully shouldn't be a problem.

[lavenderrose]

I have had quite a lot of experience over the years with Epilepsy and was always told to put into the recover position. At a recent First Aid course i mentioned this as i had just had to deal with a 21 year old man whilst on holiday. I was told that you no longer need to place in the recovery position, just to observe and call for medical aid. I will however continue to roll onto side( LEFT IF POSSIBLE), but nothing else needs to be done to them. The most important thing is to call for help as soon as possible. It can be very scary at the time and they will seem to be fitting for ages, when they come around i always tell them what has happend, make sure they understand that they are ok and help is on its way
hope this helps a bit
sandra

[Alibali]

You should just ensure that the area around person is safe and they cannot hurt themselves on anything. You just leave them to let the fit run its course. After the fit is over they can go into a post-ictal phase where they are semi-conscious and at this point you can gently place them in the recovery position. It is scary to watch the first time, and advice is if fit lasts longer than a few minutes call an ambulance.

Hope it doesn't happen, but if it does you'll cope just fine,