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Medical Author:

J Stephen Huff, MD

Coauthor:

Mary Huff, RN

Medical Editor:

Charles Patrick Davis, MD, PhD

Charles Patrick Davis, MD, PhD

Dr. Charles "Pat" Davis, MD, PhD, is a board certified Emergency Medicine doctor who currently practices as a consultant and staff member for hospitals. He has a PhD in Microbiology (UT at Austin), and the MD (Univ. Texas Medical Branch, Galveston). He is a Clinical Professor (retired) in the Division of Emergency Medicine, UT Health Science Center at San Antonio, and has been the Chief of Emergency Medicine at UT Medical Branch and at UTHSCSA with over 250 publications.

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A first seizure is a reason to visit the doctor or a hospital's emergency department. For a person with a seizure disorder, a change in seizure patterns or more frequent seizures are reasons to seek medical care.

Many people with recurrent seizures may have a seizure and awaken fully. Immediate medical attention is not often needed if the person is fully awake and has not suffered injury and is known to have recurrent seizures.

Other conditions, however, call for immediate medical attention.

• A seizure that continues more than 5 minutes or a series of seizures without full recovery between them
• Persistent breathing difficulty (Often the person may appear to stop breathing briefly during the seizure, but breathing should resume quickly; if it does not, call 911, check for a pulse and if necessary, begin CPR.)
• Injuries sustained during a seizure
• Persistent confusion or unconsciousness
• A first seizure
• A significant change from that person's usual seizure pattern in terms of seizure type, seizure length, or associated symptoms

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