Collins Morillo, only 2, was transported to the hospital by air for treatment after experiencing a major extended febrile seizure. However, most seizures of this nature aren’t perilous, this one required emergency treatment.
Collins hadn’t been feeling her best most of the day Monday and had a fever higher than 103, the family said. Her mother gave her Tylenol and put her to sleep after she wasn’t up to eating dinner.
Addyson who’s 6 years old and shares a room with Collins noticed something was wrong with her and went to get her mom. “She was doing something weird,” Addyson recalled.
The family didn’t know when the seizure began but suspected it had gone on for quite a while lasting several minutes. Her mom called 911 from their home in rural Bourbon County, Kansas, which is over an hour south of Kansas City.
“When I scooped her up she was blue, she was limp, but her limbs were still shaking. She kind of had some foamy type stuff at the mouth,” the girls’ mother Allee Morillo explained.
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After the ambulance showed up, paramedics informed the Morillo family that Collins would need to be airlifted to the Children’s Mercy Hospital located in Kansas City.
“We just couldn’t get her to wake up really. Her stats were really low, her respiration was really low,” Allee said.
By early Tuesday morning, after treatment at the hospital, the specialist had Collins feeling good enough to return home. She was a little drained from her care and adventure in the air, however the mother says she definitely owes her sister a thank you.
“If she wouldn’t have come and got me, the fact she was already blue, I truly don’t know what would have happened,” Allee said.
Addyson – who says she doesn’t believe she’s a hero because she doesn’t have a cape – and is just a little jealous of one tiny thing: Her younger sister getting to ride in a helicopter before she was able to.
“We’ll just get you a special ride, we don’t need to do that again,” her mother joked.
Febrile seizures, or a seizure brought on by fever, can occur at any stage in children, but are generally more common before they are old enough to attend school, frequently at age two. Specialists say that you should seek medical attention if they last longer than a couple of minutes or if your child is struggling to inhale or becoming blue in the face.
It’s essential to know that most seizures in children caused by fevers aren’t typically life threatening. They happen to an estimated one in about every 25 families. Having a febrile seizure does not necessarily mean that a child has epilepsy, since that disorder is characterized by reoccurring seizures that are not triggered by fever.
Although they can be quite frightening for parents, brief febrile seizures that last less than 15 minutes do not cause any long-term health issues. However, keep in mind that if another does occur, it is more likely to be prolonged, but even prolonged seizures lasting more than 15 minutes are generally harmless but do carry an increased risk of developing epilepsy.