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UPDATED: Sun, 10/21/2007 - 9:37pm

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Empowering the Global Community

Epilepsy.com is an online resource provided by The Epilepsy Therapy Development Project. Our mission is to inform and empower two groups of patients and their families: those facing newly diagnosed epilepsy, and those struggling with epilepsy that has resisted treatment. Approximately 120,000 people visit epilepsy.com each month and read over 500,000 pages of information.

As editor-in-chief, I oversee all the content on epilepsy.com. Believing that knowledge is empowering, we strive to present information about all the medical and psychosocial aspects of epilepsy. No topic is off-limits, including SUDEP. 2,000 to 3,000 people read this page each month.

In addition to content on epilepsy.com, we have an active Community Forum, where over 4,000 members communicate with one another, ask questions and share personal insights about their experiences with epilepsy.

SUDEP is a common topic discussed on the Community Forum. Family members and friends express their fear that the person with epilepsy will die from a seizure, or have severe brain damage, and are particularly concerned when during a seizure their friend stops breathing and turns blue. While most participants know that death from seizures rarely occurs, and that when it does it generally is associated with severe and uncontrolled seizures, some people are clearly misinformed. One person said that a neurologist had assured him that no one has ever died from a seizure, but that continuous seizures could cause enough heart damage to cause a heart attack. Another said that most neurologists ‘play down’ SUDEP. Yet another said ‘The doctors and nurse educators do not talk about SUDEP. I mentioned it to the nurse after reading it online and she said it is very rare and not to worry. In all her 20 years of experience, she had only one patient die of SUDEP. She was interested to hear that it is being talked about on the web and that maybe they need to consider it as part of their patient education’. One person said, ‘One of my problems, I realise after researching epilepsy on epilepsy.com, is that my doctor did not do his job of educating me about my condition. He never explained how or why my medication would work and why I should take it regularly. If I had known how it worked, then I probably would have taken it more often. If he had educated me about SUDEP or had referred me to epilepsy groups, things may be different.’

Several participants in the Community Forum have been touched personally by SUDEP. They search for answers and understanding. A wife lost her husband. ‘I was never told of the risk that my husband might die from a seizure. He had instructed me NEVER to call 911 (he found it humiliating and unhelpful). ‘It’s not going to kill me’, he said. My husband died of SUDEP at the age of 40.’ A mother lost her 18-year-old daughter:

‘SUDEP was something that I was totally unaware of. I called to wake her up one morning only to find her dead. She suffered from poorly controlled seizures and would have 2 to 9 a month. I know that losing a child is the most difficult event that one can experience. I have good days and bad ones. I am slowly healing from the shock of this. I think about her all the time. The autopsy showed that she did not aspirate nor suffocate. No abnormal findings whatsoever in her organs. I am getting better at wondering if there was something else that I could have done, or missed, to prevent this. I was never told that she was at high risk of sudden death. I found this out after she passed. The clinic that we went to had told me that it was actually better that she had seizures at night. I did ask the neurologist why he never informed me that she was at high risk of sudden death and he responded by asking me if I thought that this was something that they should be telling people. I do and I don’t. I am thankful that I did not know. I would have sheltered her and would have been paranoid. But then on the other hand I believe that I should have known about the possibility. I just feel that there needs to be more research on this SUDEP and those who are at high risk should be told. Families should be informed about the possibilities.’

I think that says it all. We will continue to add new information to epilepsy.com about SUDEP as it becomes available.

Steven C Schachter, Professor of Neurology
Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts, USA

Reprinted with the permission of Epilepsy Australia-the national coalition of Australia epilepsy associations and Epilepsy Bereaved UK.


Welcome to the Wiki. This space is created for epilepsy.com members to share their own experiences and expertise to help refine and expand the discussion around important topics.

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