Less than half of people know how to help someone having a seizure, according to recent findings from Epilepsy Ireland.

Epilepsy is a brain disorder that causes a person to experience recurring seizures.

Despite the disorder affecting over 45,000 people across Ireland, the majority of people do not know what to do in the event of a seizure.

A medic in PPE and ambulances outside the Accident and Emergency department at the Mater Hospital in Dublin (Niall Carson/PA), © PA Archive/PA Images

Spokesperson for Epilepsy Ireland Paddy McGeoghegan joined Breakfast Briefing for International Epilepsy Day to give some basic tips for helping someone through a seizure.

“All you need to remember is three keywords, and they are time, safe, stay,” he said.

“Just to kind of give you the headline of those figures, it’s time of seizure – if it goes over five minutes, you need to call an ambulance.

“You need to keep the person safe during the seizure, that means protecting their head, removing any harmful objects around them – and also being aware that there’s more than one type of seizure.

“And stay – you need to stay with the person throughout their seizure and thereafter, because often after a person recovers from a seizure they’ll feel dazed, confused, exhausted.”

Mr McGeoghegan said speaking gently to someone can “make a world of difference” as they come to.

Never put something in a person's mouth

He said that you should never put your fingers or any other object in a person’s mouth to stop them from swallowing their tongue.

While a person may bite their tongue, they cannot swallow it during a seizure.

“That’s a big misconception when it comes to seizure first aid,” Mr McGeoghegan said.

“You’ll often hear of people saying, you know, ‘Go and get a spoon’, whenever a person is having a seizure for example.

“I suppose what we really want to highlight is that’s not the situation – you do not put anything in the person’s mouth during a seizure so please, please forget about that.”

EPILEPSY, EEG. Image: BSIP SA / Alamy. 3 February 2016

Epilepsy Ireland’s research shows that 74% of the public underestimate the prevalence of epilepsy.

According to Mr McGeoghegan, the condition can go unnoticed if a person has received effective treatment.

“The majority of people with epilepsy can become seizure free when the right treatment is identified for their individual epilepsy,” he said.

“So, there could be people with epilepsy within your very, very close circle who are not necessarily having seizures but are managing other unseen challenges of living with the condition.

“But equally, epilepsy can strike at any stage when you have the condition so that’s why it’s so, so important that people know about the keywords.

Further information about epilepsy can be found online at www.epilepsy.ie.

Main image: Nurse in assisting living program finding senior lying on the floor. Image: Kzenon / Alamy. 19 February 2020