I woke suddenly at 4am. My wife was beside me, lying on her belly, head to the left. She appeared to be spasming, making a hunh hunh hunh sound from her throat. I shook her shoulder, no response. Switched on the light, put on my glasses, went around to her side of the bed. She had a little whitish foam out of her mouth. She appeared to be getting air (airway okay) between the spasming. No signs of stopped breathing (blue lips / face). Heart was strong. Tried to awaken her, no response. Eyes red and open. I thought maybe she had swallowed something in her sleep that was causing a partial obstruction, did a quick mouth swipe with my finger, nothing. Called 911. Operator had me move her to the floor on her back, remove her shirt and begin CPR chest compressions. Really, I said, she's breathing and I can feel her heart beat. Yes. So head tilt, still breathing, but still unresponsive. With breathing and heart beating, I didn't compress hard enough to break her sternum, deep compressions for 30-40 seconds until she reached up and stopped me, and began to come around. I asked her my name, she said Tom. EMTs arrived, took over care. She was groggy, no memory of what happened.

Today an MRI revealed some masses on her brain of unknown origin - next step is to sort that out. Healthy middle aged female, no history of seizures. First aid, CPR - it really does often boil down to doing it for or to someone you love. Please, please make sure you are all trained. She asked, were you scared I was going to die? I told her no, once I had clicked off the A B Cs I knew that she was with us and we will get through this. God bless all paramedics, thank you Bellevue Fire Department (Station 1).

I'm glad it worked out. Let us know how it goes.

I hope that she's alright.

Prayers and best wishes.

I'm very happy y'all made it through the initial crisis, and my thoughts and prayers are with you and your DW for a speedy and complete recovery. But I'm a bit confused by the instruction to do chest compressions when you reported that both pulse and breathing were present. Normally CPR isn't advised for patients with a detectable pulse and respiration, so I am wondering if there were some details left out, or if I'm misunderstanding something?

Not only did you know what to do, did what you needed to do and didn't panic. Good man!

I hope it turns out okay. Fingers, toes and eyes crossed for the both of you.

Sue

Sounds like everything turned out OK! Glad to hear that, hope the masses arent anything to worry about. Good job not panicking, I had to undergo CPR on my father who is a long time smoker, and he stopped breathing in his sleep. Now i found out it was a shallow breath because he still does it! But hope every thing is OK and you have no more incidents!

The calmness of your response is most impressive. We'll keep you in our prayers.

-Blast

Ditto What Blast says.
Adventureboy

Nothing left out, and I was initially confused too - the 911 operator though said do compressions, so I did, but I consciously chose not to do them hard enough to break her breast bone, more to promote some circulation. I could only assume she had a protocol, and we were following it. I told the EMTs she was breathing and had a strong heart beat and that I had intiated CPR, they didn't comment (it was mostly scoop and transport her to the local hospital), and the consulting neurologist thouth it was interesting but didn't differ with the instructions either.

Now that my wife has had one seizure, if she has another I am more likely to treat it like a seizure, monitor her breathing, make her comfortable, time it, and wait for her to come otu of it, then make a decision to contact our doctor. She is on anti-seizure medication so this isn't too likely.

Frankly, it sounds like the 911 operator screwed up. Perhaps followup would be a good idea.

Seizures can be frustrating, because there is very little you can do, short of rapid, proper transport to an ER. Keep the airway open, monitor ABCs, and keep the victim from injury. These situations really test your training.

It was unusual, but net net she wasn't going to die from some compressions, even if I had given it everything I had. I figure she did what she did - what if I had overestimated m'y wife's breathing or color, she would be without oxygen that much longer? The 911 operator is on the phone 7 miles away, better to get my wife to the floor etc.

It's interesting to think, nothing I did helped to save my wife's life in anyway, short of dialling 911. Either way, may the gods bless the 911 system too - when things calm down a little, they get a fruit basket or something in thanks as well.

I've been there, with my first child at the age of 6 months(She's 11 now). When it really counts, Training DOES kick in. We had just recertified for CPR at my Firehouse 2 nights before I had to act. I hope she's ok.
Good Job.
Matthew

How scary, Lono! Kudos to you for being relatively calm and effective in such a stressful situation. Best wishes to you and your wife as you proceed with a diagnosis.

My sister gave her husband a terrible scare a few years ago when, in the middle of the night, she had a seizure resulting in hospitalization.

The doctors traced her seizure back to a terrible traffic accident she'd suffered twenty years prior that resulted in head injuries and a broken neck.

Apparently it's not uncommon for a head injury -- auto, sports-related or whatever -- to spur seizures more than a decade later. The docs speculated that my sister's head injury history (which left calcium deposits on her brain), fatigue, Sudafed and a prescription medication combined to trigger her first seizure. She subsequently had a couple more seizures and is now on anti-seizure medication and has not had another recurrence.

Again, my regards to both of you.

Lono,

Best wishes to you and your wife. My son had a seizure a few months back that led the babysitter to believe he was not breathing (I wrote about it on here as well) and it was one of the most terrifying experiences I have been through.

It sounds like you kept your head and were able to put aside your fear and emotions and do what needed to be done, so good job.

I agree, however, that it might be worthwhile to follow-up on why the dispatcher insisted you start compressions. My only thought is that if you mentioned on the phone that you had done a finger sweeep, perhaps the dispatcher latched onto an unconcious/airway obstruction protocol, which might indeed call for immediate compressions.

And don't discount the role you played. You recognized that there was a problem, called for help, and managed the situation until help arrived. I'm sure your wife is very appreciative of your efforts!

Again, best wishes for a speedy recovery.

Jesselp

911 operators aren't paramedics. They also don't know what you know (or don't) and they can't see what is going on. They are used to dealing with the lowest denominator. I would assume they operate like the Pakistani computer 'techs' you get on the phone: type in problem, speak protocol.

I was with a couple when she went into a grand mal epileptic seizure. Her husband whipped out his handkerchief, folded it a bit more than it was, and wedged a corner of it between her back teeth on one side. He said she had bitten her tongue very badly during one seizure. I had heard this before -- is it still a good idea?

Lono, from something I saw several times as a vet tech, your light compressions may have had an effect. Once in a while we would get a dog or cat that would kind of 'forget' to breathe while under anesthesia. Unless they were less tolerant of the drug, it wasn't likely that they were given too much (my vet was extremely careful about that). I would be monitoring the animal while the doctor was doing the surgery, and I would warn him that it had stopped breathing. He would stop as quickly as he could (clamp if necessary, then raise his hands), and I would give the dog or cat just one or two compressions of the rib cage, and they would start breathing normally again. This may have been what you did, just a kind of reminder?

Sue