Terror!

3/27/12

      I got a new student from the homeless shelter today! He is so cute; he doesn’t talk much, except when he wants to ask what time lunch is or when it’s time to go home.  Unfortunately, that was not the only exciting event in my classroom today.

      One of the scariest things I’ve ever had happen to me in my life, happened today. One of my students walked in from ELP (the Extended Learning Program class) and complained to Mrs. Draper that she couldn’t really feel her leg. Mrs. Draper told her to take a seat if her legs were bothering her so bad, & I overheard the conversation & immediately jumped up from my guided reading group.  (I think the Spirit really just prompted me to move in that instant.) I got to her just as she stood and began falling to the floor.  She shrieked loudly; such a terrifying and terrified sound, and her eyes grew wide as she screamed, “noooooooo!” She said something about “seizing” and I immediately remembered how she’s written her personal narrative about a seizure she’d had last summer. I gently lowered her to the ground as her eyes got larger and her whole entire body started convulsing.  She obviously had lost control over all body functions, and began expelling gas uncontrollably as well. I leaned over my shoulder and told Mrs. Draper to call someone, & she went over to notify the office and call the paramedics.  When Maya came back to consciousness and had regained sufficient use of her limbs after an intense five minute fit, she started crying and whimpering.  Her mom had also been called, but unable to make it there very quickly since she had no car & had to walk to get to the school.  I can’t imagine the panic she was probably feeling as she made her way over to the school.  Mrs. Draper eventually got my students to leave the classroom & line up for lunch pretty quickly once the principal made it up to my classroom. I had yelled at some of my students to quit staring at her, & to return to their reading assignment.  (I later recalled the horrified looks on some of their faces, & realized they couldn’t turn away; I wish I’d thought to get them out of the classroom immediately.)

      Once Maya’s mom showed up, Maya kept whimpering & insisting that she didn’t want to have to go to the hospital again, or be in a wheelchair the rest of her life.  I felt serious heartache for her as she continued voicing everything going through her mind-why would God let this happen when she’d prayed so fervently since last summer that it would never happen again? As I talked her calmly, smoothing her hair back (which is still somewhat of a miracle since I was panicky inside) tears rose in both of our eyes.  I told her it hadn’t seemed fair to me either when I kept getting severe migraines as a missionary, even though I was trying to serve God & do the best thing I could with my life at that point.  As Maya’s tongue became less thick I could better understand her, & at this point she said: “I think migraines aren’t as bad as seizures….I’d rather have a migraine every day!” Poor girl; she really was upset by the whole situation, especially the fact that she’d had a seizure on the floor in front of the class.

      She repeatedly told the principal & I that she didn’t want to die from this, & we reassured her she wasn’t going to die.  She calmed down, & then I had to talk to the paramedics on the phone to monitor Maya’s breathing with them.  They also asked me to keep her on her left side, which proved to be a somewhat difficult task since she kept wanting to stand up so she could feel her legs.  They took SO long to get there; 15 minutes after the episode occurred.  While we waited, the principal asked Maya what her favorite song was so we could hum it together, & it would hopefully calm her down.  First we started with “Called to Serve” & moved on to “I Am a Child of God” when Maya started panicking that she couldn’t feel her legs again.  I told her I would pat them down for her so she could measure feeling based on whether or not my hands were on her legs.

      When the paramedics finally showed up, they put an oxygen mask over her face & she started freaking out about it & insisted she was getting too much oxygen & kept trying to reach up & remove the straps. She kept telling them she didn’t want to have to go to the hospital & that she was scared.  When they started asking her questions like her name, her mom’s name, & where she was, she started to close off to their questions (especially about how she felt.) She started responding with “I don’t know” to everything they queried.  She kind of dozed off at one point, & I felt her little body relax underneath my hands. She was obviously exhausted from the exertion during the seizure. We finally helped her sit up though & walked her over to the stretcher, where I put the oxygen mask on her & then they took her away to run some tests. (I had to talk to a doctor about all the symptoms she’d exhibited during the fit later on that afternoon.) Once Maya left my sight, I completely broke down sobbing; I had been holding it in, trying to be strong for her so she wouldn’t get any more frightened than she’d been, but it was also a very scary and unexpected experience for me.