Scary moment this morning

This morning Cathi told me we had the carpool. I was about to leave for work and she asked if I would take the kids. I agreed since I was on my way to work, and could just take them on the way. After picking up the three girls, and going down 2700 S., only 30 seconds or so into the drive with all the kids, I heard one girl in the back seat say, "Hey are you OK? What are you doing? What are you doing?" I looked in the rear view mirror to see one of the girls white as a ghost with her face completely clenched breathing fast through her nose and her eyes rolled back. She was leaned over onto one of the girls sitting in the middle. It was quite shocking to see. Her hands were clenched into fists and she was convulsing.

I immediately told the girls to just relax and make sure she could breathe. I turned the car around and took her home. At the same time I called 911 and talked to dispatch. We arrived at her home and one of the girls went up to get her Dad. He came out and by that time she was no longer convulsing and was just passed out in a relaxed state with her breathing calm. The active seizure probably lasted about 30 seconds to a full minute.

When the officer arrived he asked the Dad about medical history, diet, etc... She was slowly coming back to alertness and was able to be assisted out of the back seat and back in her house. I then took the remaining three kids to school.

Back when I was at Deseret gym there was a boy who had a mild seizure. This one was pretty intense. According to the parents, this was a first incident and not a recurring thing. For me as the adult in the group and the one responsible for the safety of the kids on the way to school, it was a little disturbing and glad that it wasn't so bad that she stopped breathing. I was afraid that my tunnel vision would affect my driving. So I tried to focus on getting back to the house instead of trying to drive, talk to dispatch and provide care all at the same time. I'm still a little in shock over the whole thing.

I hope the other kids in the carpool are respectful of the situation and the young woman's privacy in keeping the story quiet. I left a voicemail on Austin's cell phone to be quiet about what happened, but who knows if he'll listen to it. Hopefully he uses good judgment. I'm sure the young lady will be embarrassed when word gets out and hopefully people will respond in a caring way without making her feel "broken" or different.