I looked true terror in the face today

[Dedman]

This isn't really commentary or rant material. Just something I need to get off of my chest.

As most of you know, I have a two-year-old daughter. Well, her, Mrs. Dedman, and I were in San Francisco over the long weekend to get together with my Dad, Aunt, and bother to scatter my Mom's ashes.

As you can imagine, emotions were already running a bit high. We scattered the ashes on Saturday, went back to the house, had a drink, cried a little, and then went on with our weekend.

Today (Sunday) we decided to go to Pier 39 so my daughter could watch the sea lions that have taken over the marina. Anyway, she woke up Sunday morning with a fever. No big deal, she's a two-year-old; they do that from time to time. We gave her some Childrenâ??s Tylenol, kept monitoring the fever, and went about our day.

We were driving back from watching the seals when my wife noticed that our daughter was seizing. This was cause for concern, but not panic. Little kids do this sometimes when they have a high fever. She has done this to us before when it lasted about 20 seconds. The Doc said it's their brains way of rebooting due to the fever.

I started to time the seizure and tried to remain calm (with much success I might add). Mrs. Dedman started to panic when the seizing didnâ??t stop after a few seconds. We told my Aunt, who was driving, to get us to the nearest emergency room. She started driving like she just stole the car.

At some point a few seconds later, several things happened at once. We got stuck in traffic, Mrs. Dedman started screaming, and I looked at my daughter, who after 45 seconds was still seizing. What I saw was the most terrifying thing I have ever seen on my 40 years on this planet. Her hands were cramped into claws, her eyes were rolled back into her head, her whole body was stiff and spasming, and her hands and lips were turning blue.

I jumped out of the back seat of the car, ran around to the other side, jerked open the door, pulled her out of her car seat, and laid her down on the sidewalk. I began trying to assess whether she was breathing or not.

Out of nowhere these two women materialized by my side and started helping me. They told me they had a lot of experience with this type of thing in kids and that everything would be all right. One of the women and I, got my daughter rolled over onto her side, started to comfort her, made sure she was breathing and didnâ??t hurt herself. After 90 seconds of seizing, she finally stopped. She was still unresponsive however and the woman told me that was normal after a seizure like this.

At some point during all of this, my Brother called 911 and directed the San Francisco Fire Department to where we were. It only took them about 3 minutes to get to us. This whole time Mrs. Dedman was screaming and crying right behind me. She was understandably on the verge of hysteria. I somehow managed to keep calm and collected during the whole incident, trying not to panic my daughter (although I am not sure how aware she was of what was going on) or Mrs. Dedman anymore than they already were.

I kept it together until the paramedics had complete control of the situation and had loaded Mrs. Dedman and our daughter into the ambulance. At this point I completely lost it. I sunk down to the ground and started to sob. I couldnâ??t even stand up for the better part of a minute. I finally got calmed down enough to get into the ambulance with the Mrs. Dedman and our daughter.

By the time we got to the emergency room (6 minutes) everyone had calmed down to the point that we could think and talk somewhat clearly. My daughter was responsive but freaked out. She was hooked up to the heart monitor and was breathing O2 and was just kind of staring around not making any noise but obviously scared.

Long story short, she had a Febrile Seizure. These are brought on by high fever and are in and of them selves, relatively harmless. She recovered fully, although she is probably a bit sore. Mrs. Dedman and I however, are still trying to get over the terror of seeing our only child seize up and turn blue before our eyes. That is a level of scared I never knew existed. Even as I write this, some 7 hours after the incident, my heart rate must be in the 80â??s. Adrenaline is a hell of a drug.

I wanted to thank those two women that helped me out. They left just as fast as they appeared. It was all very strange. I also give much props to the SFFD. They were awesome.

Itâ??s 11:56 pm on Sunday night right now. I am going to go to bed and try to sleep for a week.

I hope every oneâ??s weekend was better than mine.

[Duper]

I'm very VERY glad things turned out ok. It sounds like you recieved a miracle. I've had a couple of these instances happen over the course of my life. the circumstances are never pleasant when they do occur, but I'm always thankful when they do.

Will your daughter grow out of these episodes? I know my daughter would get what was called "silent ear infections". We wouldn't know that anything was wrong unti she started to become lethargic. She was VERY energetic and would only slow down when her fever (unbenounced to us) spiked over 104 degrees. o_0 No siezer but it's just a little disconserting all the same. This happened something like 4 or 5 times until she was like 6 years old. Unfortunately, it seems that she has some hearing loss ... although you can't convince her of that.

[Tyranny]

Probably Cafe material but all the same I'm glad to hear everything is alright. You're never really prepared for moments such as these. Not so much how to handle them, but the effects they have on you and your family. It is a shame these things even happen, but thankfully your daughter is alright. It sounds as though you handled yourself to the best of your ability. That is all one can hope for.

[roid]

yeah. blue lips, i see your point.

although I am not sure how aware she was of what was going on

wouldn't have had a clue. during seizures the conscious brain is "gone to disneyland until further notice".

[Will Robinson]

Had the same thing happen with my youngest one when she was about 3 but thankfully, not stuck in traffic,
that must have made it ten times worse!
It is truly the most helpless feeling imaginable to see your child like that!

Glad all is well now for you.

[CUDA]

when I first read the title of this thread I was gonna make a joke about my secretary, but after reading you post I say Thank God for your Guardian Angels. having children myself and several of them I have been where your at a couple of times, the worse was seeing my (at the time) 11 year old son laying in the middle of the street in a pool of blood from his head after being hit by a hit and run driver. just ended up with a cut head and a concusion, but scared the Shat out my wife and I none the less. I can truly sympathize with you Ded, My prayers are with you and the Misses

[Flabby Chick]

Truly frightning Ded'. Glad to hear all is ok.

This calm amid panic situation happened to me with my first daughter, i had to do the hymlic on her at two years of age. I was with a friend of mine who serves in a crack unit in the army (he was one of the guys at Ma'alot) it was weird to see him in a big flap whilst i seemed to go into slow motion, taking control.

Anyway, good to hear alls well.

[CDN_Merlin]

I'm happy she's ok and that you are also. My wife used to have seizures when she was in her 20's and she told me she was able to see and understand everything but just couldn't move her body. It scared the poop out of me.

[bash]

Nice work, Pop, keeping your wits about you. :thumbup: Today you are a sheepdog. Glad to hear everything worked out for the best. It'll be a great story to tell at her wedding.

[Dedman]

Doing some research on Febrile Seizures shows that about 1 in 20 kids have them at some point. They are brought on by high fever, usually in the first day of illnes. Kids will out grow them usually by the time they are 6 or so.

I guess this is just one of the many joys of parenthood

[woodchip]

From my perspective, possibly the worst thing that can happen to someone is having their child become life threatened. I congradulate you Dedman on handling things as well as you did and hope you never have to go through that scenario again.

[Dedman]

I congradulate you Dedman on handling things as well as you did and hope you never have to go through that scenario again.

Thanks. Although I totally lost it when the paramedics had her stabilized and were loading her into the ambulance.

I hope I never have to go through that again. I am not sure if the old ticker could handle it again.

[MD-2389]

Two thumbs up dude. Seriously, not many people would keep their cool like you did.

[Herculosis]

My son (now 13) had a Febrile Seizure when he was a little under 2. My wife had him in the car with her on the freeway at the time. By the time I heard about it he was fine, but she actually thought he was dead for a few moments. It really teaches you something about the love we have for our kids.

One thing you might want to look into though. I've got 3 kids, and Tylenol never seems to do much for any of them when it comes to fever. When my 13 yr old was little, he was getting lots of ear infections, and the doctor prescribed a childrens Ibuprofin (it wasn't available over the counter then). That stuff is amazing for fever in kids. Usually kicks 'em right down to normal. We keep that and Tylenol. Since they work differently, you can actually overlap them without much concern. Three different doctors told us that. The Ibuprofin dose can be given every 6 hours, but sometimes fever will start coming back after say 4 or so. We'll then give some Tylenol to get over that period until we can give more Ibuprofin.

[Will Robinson]

...the doctor prescribed a childrens Ibuprofin (it wasn't available over the counter then). That stuff is amazing for fever in kids. Usually kicks 'em right down to normal. We keep that and Tylenol. Since they work differently, you can actually overlap them without much concern. Three different doctors told us that. The Ibuprofin dose can be given every 6 hours, but sometimes fever will start coming back after say 4 or so. We'll then give some Tylenol to get over that period until we can give more Ibuprofin.

Ditto that, it really makes a big difference!

[Dedman]

she actually thought he was dead for a few moments.

Mrs. Dedman thought our daughter was dead too. That's about the time she completely lost it. I had a clearer view of things because I was one of the ones looking after her and I knew she still had a pulse and was still breathing. That little bit of knowledge made all the difference in the world.

Since they work differently, you can actually overlap them without much concern. Three different doctors told us that. The Ibuprofin dose can be given every 6 hours, but sometimes fever will start coming back after say 4 or so. We'll then give some Tylenol to get over that period until we can give more Ibuprofin.

Yeah, we are doing that. Tylenol every 4 hours and Motrin every 6.

[Juggernaut]

humanity is so frail

[Ferno]

good show Ded.

[Mobius]

Glad things worked out Dedman.

[Lothar]

Moderator's note: This thread is not for insulting others' religious views. Express your own if you wish, but keep any negative comments about others' views to yourself or discuss them in another thread. Thanks.

[Dedman]

Lothar and/or Birdeye, feel free to close this thread. I started it (perhaps in the wrong forum) to unload a very emotional experience. It has long since served it's purpose.

Everyone is fine now. No harm was done. It took my heart rate a few days to get back down to double digits, but it finally did.

Thank you all for the kind words.