Thursday, August 01, 2002

moments to make your heart stop

A little after 7 p.m. Wednesday evening, Isaac had a seizure that lasted approximately two minutes. The doctors at the hospital said the seizure appears to have been caused by a fever he has from a virus infection. I was giving Isaac a bath to bring down his temperature -- it was 102.9 degrees when I checked it -- when the seizure happened.

It is a sight I will never forget to the day I die. For a few minutes I thought he was going to. His eyes rolled back into his head a few times, and then his head began to twitch, followed by his arms and then his legs. The convulsions stopped just as the ambulance squad arrived, at which point he regained consciousness but not more in the way of awareness. His breathing was ragged and irregular at this point, and he was unresponsive to what was being said.

We got him to the hospital, and he seemed to be mostly recovered. He sang a few songs with me, and interacted in a subdued manner with the doctors. Mostly, he tried to get off the bed.

Isaac's parents were told and came to the hospital with a friend of ours, who had come expecting a Bible study on the gospel of Mark. Natasha and I also contacted the state to let them know what was going on.

At the moment, Isaac is sound asleep upstairs. The doctors have told us to keep the fever down with pediatric Advil and Tylenol, which we are doing. If he still has a fever Friday, they said to take him to his pediatrician, and of course to get him to the hospital again if he has any more seizures.

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