Shake Up At IHOP

Just before 2100 hours we received a call for a child having a seizure at IHOP. We jumped into our bunker pants and started responding. Even today, the sound of the growler and the lights reflecting off everything make me smile. Even when it's cold I keep my window down.

 Since it's a pediatric call I talk with my engineer (he's a medic as well) during the ride about what we might encounter. We decided it was a 5 year old it was probably not a febrile seizure. There would more than likely be a preexisting seizure condition that the parents already knew about and that the staff had probably called. We figured that if the kid was of normal size he's be somewhere around 40 pounds which made the dose for Versed (in case he was still actively seizing when we got there) 1.8mg.

When we arrived we found the mother of the young boy holding his head while he rested on his right side on the floor. He was very hot to the touch. We tried out our new thermometer but it wouldn't work. Stupid new toy. The kid had a seizure that lasted about 10 seconds and the dad had helped his son to the floor. Since that time he had not been very responsive. The parents said that he was just starting to get sick today and that he had only had a fever for about an hour. He had no medical history, was taking no medications and had no known allergies. So far all of our assumptions in the rig (except for his weight which was dead on) were wrong. We quickly got him on some oxygen, got him out of his clothes and started cooling him and checked a sugar. AMR was on scene just a couple of minutes after we arrived.

The kid was a little old for your average febrile seizure but I guess no one had told him that. His parents did the right thing. They kept him from hurting himself by hitting anything and kept him on his side in case he threw up. The only other thing they could have done would have been to start cooling him off.