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Robbie's Story
"Not all seizures are the same"
When you look at this photo, you cannot help but be captured by the brown eyes and adorable smile of five-year old, Robbie. But what you cannot guess from this image is that Robbie was diagnosed with epilepsy in January 2019. The lively little boy has experienced multiple absence seizures, as well as focal and tonic clonic seizures.
Loving Mum Vicky, says one of the challenges she has experienced is public misconception about what a seizure looks like.
“We have had seizures in public, but because they are absence seizures no one really noticed. When they find out he has epilepsy, people comment “but he wasn’t shaking?”
Despite this lack of understanding, Vicky recalls a positive first aid experience.
“We were at swimming lessons one day and my son had an absence seizure whilst in the pool. It took him a good five minutes to slowly become himself again. The teacher was amazing and explained to the class what was going on and that we needed to take a bit of time to ourselves. I was required to fill out an incident report with management and they couldn’t have been more helpful. They called us later that day and again two days later to see how Robbie was.”
Vicky emphasises that seizure first aid and awareness should extend to ALL types of seizures.
“Seizure awareness and first aid for ALL types of seizures is important because people need to know how to help those in need, what to do and what not to do. Not all seizures are the same!”