"The treatment I received when I had a seizure"

I had a really horrible experience at Wonthaggi Hospital recently.

I went in to the dental department for an appointment. My carer for the day (a family friend) was in the car answering an email. I checked in at reception and sat down, but felt a seizure coming on. So I went back to reception to warn them about it as I got my medication from my bag.

Unfortunately, I sunk down to the ground at the reception desk after only managing to say “I’m about to have a seizure”. I had popped my pill into my hand but hadn’t been able to administer it myself.

A code blue was called, and they helped me lay down.

Staff came rushing and people moved and talked around me.

My carer for the day arrived on scene and told the staff I needed my medication, and to just lay me down and wait it out. They told my carer they needed to move me out of that area.

I was asked to open my hand because it was clenched, but I stuttered I couldn’t. I recall a staff member then picked up my arm and shook it. They sat it back down, said something to their coworker, and then I was forcibly sat upright. I was held up by some people. One staff member knelt down in front of me and I recall they loudly said that I don’t have to shake. It wasn’t my choice to be shaking. I was having a seizure.

My carer tried to tell them to just wait, but it seemed they refused to listen. I was never given my medication either. The doctor took the medication from my hand and put it in their pocket. (It was returned to me before I was discharged)

They forced me, while I was in the middle of a seizure, to kneel on my knees and get myself up onto the hospital bed that they’d brought over. I managed to stutter I couldn’t do it, and they reluctantly/begrudgingly, hoisted me up.

I felt so out of it, and like I was going to lose consciousness. I don’t think I did, but I can’t be certain.

From that point, I feel I was practically ignored as they wheeled me through the hospital. Eventually the shaking stopped, but I knew it wasn’t in the right way. Everything felt utterly wrong. I couldn’t move, my body felt locked and shaky without actually shaking.

Eventually I was taken into a room at urgent care/emergency, and left in there. The two staff member’s wheeling the bed didn’t even say a word about their departure. They just left without saying anything. I didn’t even realise I was alone at first.

And then I had a second seizure. I felt I nearly suffocated in the pillow that was under my head as my face rolled and got obstructed by the pillow. It was lucky someone, either a doctor or nurse, just happened to be passing by or stopping in and saw me.

My carer was brought into the room, as I believe they’d been kept elsewhere until then, and was able to help comfort me.

My second seizure had barely stopped when the nurse said they needed to take my shirt off to run an ECG.

I was so tired, sore, and out of it that I just complied in a zombie like state. They never stopped to check (or perhaps just didn’t care) that on my file it says I am allergic to adhesives.

As I slowly came back to my normal senses, I felt the itchy and burning sensations. We asked the nurse when we next saw them if I could take them off because I was having an allergic reaction. The nurse told me they had to check with the doctor.

I got angry and started to cry out of frustration, and mild fear because I knew I’d have rashes/welts later. They were already starting to form. The nurse reluctantly agreed to let me take them off, and I ripped them off as quickly as I could.

Eventually the doctor came in, and tried to excuse the staff behaviour (I didn’t complain at the time, I think they could just tell I was upset) by saying that they don’t know me or my situation. But I feel that’s the problem.

They don’t know, but it seems they act like they do. They make assumptions but I think they’re wrong. I believe they ignored the instructions from the one person there who did know me and my situation.

I was discharged and went straight home. It took me days to recover. Normally the recovery period wouldn’t be this long. By the fifth day I was still feeling the physical and mental effects of it all. I didn’t really feel like myself again properly until nearly a full week later.

Though the mental health side of things will still take time. I’m absolutely shaken to my core by what happened, and based on my experience I don’t ever want to have to step foot in that hospital ever again.