Epilepsy Foundation educates OHS students about facts and myths

Epilepsy fact and fiction took center stage Tuesday for some Odessa High School students as an Epilepsy Foundation West Texas member talked with physical education and world history students about the seizure disorder.

Victoria Rusk, outreach coordinator, showed students a video and gave them a quiz on epilepsy facts vs. myths. The overall message: Know how to help those having a seizure and recognize the signs without fear.

"Mother Nature has a way of preparing you for a traumatic event, you can feel it coming on," Rusk said. "Some can even go into seizures because they see a flash of light, while others won't."

Rusk said epilepsy is simply a treatable condition in which people have two or more seizures. A few students recognize the signs in family members or friends.

"They can't watch some TV shows because of certain colors, but now I know what to do if they have a seizure," sophomore Cody Gullett said.

Other students pointed to just learning about the different types of seizures.

"I had no idea there were so many different seizures," sophomore Belinda Wimberly said.

During Rusk's presentation, she told students about several main types of seizures. Though there are 32 types, most are fairly uncommon. Partial seizures occur because of electrical misfires in one part of the brain, while generalized seizures occur because of electrical misfires all over the brain.

With partial seizures, people remain alert. During generalized seizures, the person may become totally unconscious, particularly with tonic-clonic seizures. Those are the ones where the whole body shakes on the floor. Absence seizures typically involve around 10 seconds of staring into space without any shaking of the body at all.

Rusk told students that during a seizure, it is important to cushion a person's head while protecting them from objects. Restraining people should not be done and could cause injury.

According to Rusk, the goal of the foundation is to educate students and others on how to help friends or family with epilepsy while encouraging those with the seizure disorder to get help and stay on treatment like medication. Medication can often control the seizures.

The Epilepsy Foundation West Texas used to be called the High Plains Epilepsy Association. Workers began outreach in the region in February to provide help to epilepsy patients and educate the public.

SEIZURE CAUSES
>> Drugs/ alcohol.
>> Traumatic head injury (sometimes seizures appear years later).
>> Brain cancer.
>> Stroke.
>> Being shaken as an infant.
>> Very high fever when young.