Originally Posted by
Allan38103
Medically, a seizure in a plane is little different from on the ground, except for the cabin altitude. It would like having one in Salt lake City, for example.
The flight doesn't necessary have to land. Flights crews are trained for such events. The Captain consults with medical experts on the ground regarding the pasenger's condition, availability of medical facilities. etc. Often, the flight continues normally. Having a doctor or trained EMT on board helps.
If the passenger had never before had a seizure, it could be cause for alarm. But that's rarely the case; more often, it's someone who has been living with them for some time, and if they're of the grand mal variety, I would think it likely that they would have let the cabin crew know ahead of time. As "impressive" as a grand mal seizure may appear, in most cases (specifically after diagnosis that they're not indicative of an underlying serious condition, which could be any of a number of things, including brain clots/strokes) they're not life-threatening.
Many suffer from relatively-minor petit-mal or simple-partial seizures, and in most such cases, you wouldn't even know it was happening unless you happened to be talking to the person at that time. There will usually be tensing up on one side of the body and slurred speach, with a duration of anything from 30 seconds to a couple of minutes.
Epilepsy (which is what we're talking about here) is far more common than most realize. Thankfully it's very controllable in most cases, using drugs.
There is a strong tendancy to over-react when encountering someone with a seizure. When my son had one on a bike ride, causing what I'd call a "controlled" crash (he has some warning, enough to slow down to a stop before one side of his body becomes stiff), it was seen by another cyclist who happened to be a paramedic. He called in the cavalry, and by the time my wife got there (after my son called), which was only maybe 6 or 7 minutes, they had several fire trucks out there and the fire chief was arguing with my wife that they had to take my son to the hospital.
It took my wife a bit to educate them and talk them out of that. What would have been best would have been if he'd gotten back on his bike and ridden home, showing them that it's just not that big a deal (for him anyway).
The important thing is to find out if a seizure is "normal" for that person, of if this is their first time. Hope this helps someone-