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sarah ...
sarah ...

Postictal psychosis

Anyone have any idea on the following:-

My husband was experiencing postictal psychosis and tried to commit suicide 4 times during the sapce of half an hour.  To cut to the point his injuries have left him with a permanently disabled left arm. I have tried to claim from an accidental insurance policy but they will not pay as they say that it was a "self inflicted injury". My husband has no recollection of his accident, was distraught to wake up from 8 days on a life support machine to find that he had tried to kill himself and would never in a million years try to commit suicide.

Is someone who is experiencing postictal psychosis really responsible for their actions or does the mental state of mind completely stop them from thinking/acting rationally therefore they cannot be held responsible for their actions.

Sarah x.

 

By sarah ... at Tue, 09/01/2009 - 1:31pm | 68 views | 6 comments

Recent Comments on this Discussion

Legally I dont know the answer but from my experience I have no clue what I'm doing after a seizure. I have totally believed I was in a different place and time then I actually was (I'm 21 and recently I had a seizure and after told my roomies that I was 20 and I was completely convinced that I still lived in the place I was renting at that age). It was the middle of the night and I had no clue, I called my friend thinking he was coming over. I had loss control of my bladder and had no idea that my pants or sheets were wet. So in my mind someone who has just had a seizure can't be held responsible for there actions. Legally, I don't know where that stands though.

aessig928

I am sorry to hear this about your husband. 

Does your husband have temporal lobe epilepsy?  Did he have brain surgery?  Why the psychosis?  Do you know?  Has it stopped?  I read such case happening although rarely after post temporal lobe surgery in young adult males.  Luckily the psychosis is stopped with halopurinol (haldol) and often is an isolated episode.

I can't help you with your claim question, maybe you need an SSI or SSD lawyer.    

rofler

Thanks for your replies.

Yes he does have temporal lobe epilepsy.  He suffered a head injury when he was 18 and he had his first seizure at the age of 30.  He suffered every type of seizure there is, honestly.  I had no idea about the post icatl psychosis until I researched into why he had jumped in front of a car, jumped in front of a bus, hurled himself into a shop window and then finally jumped 24ft from a multi storey car park.

Why the psychosis?  Well if you read about the symptoms this is EXACTLY what was happening/happened to my husband.

2 x grand mal seizures on sunday roughly 4-5 hours apart followed by normal confusion lasting approx 10 minutes and again no idea what had just happened.

the next 48 hours that followed was the lucid period where he had no or very little sleep.

Then on Tuesday he said "help me, something is happending to me".

He could not make a decision and was very subdued.  He said that he had tingling senstions in both arms.

I took him to hospital where he has a long standing history of epilepsy with them.  One of those being where he smashed his way out and ran in his boxers down the road.  They said it was status but I beg to differ now.

Anyhow, they discharged him saying that he was having a panic attack and that he would need counselling to come to terms with his epilepsy.  No ECG was carried out and they said that the blood test would show whether he was having a seizure.  This is total rubbish because you need to be able to compare bloods to see a difference and the test is no longer used because it is unrelaible.

Came home he remained subdued.  I went to bed with my kids in one room and he in ours.  The next thing I know (midnight) is that 2 uniformed police officers are standing at my bedroom door asking if this is where my husband lives.

With regard to the claim.  I had taken out a "no medical questions asked" accidental disability insurance policy for my husband many years ago. 

I reported of his accident and had to wait a year to see if his arm would heal and move again.  Unfortunately, this was not the case and after the year was up his arm is fixated at the elbow with no movement so he is classed as disabled.

I submitted my claim and their response was one of self inflicted injury i.e. suicide.  Of course I appealed as he had no idea what he was doing at the time of the accident "literally out of his mind" and that he had no power or was not responsible for his actions over the course of events that took place.

In the end I won.  They paid £80,000.  You can imagine how delighted we were considering he has not worked for a long time because of his uncontrolled seizures.

Since then they have changed their policy wording. It now states that they will not pay "regardless of the state of mind".

To end my husband now has 3 areas of brain damamge along with other injuries.  He takes over 4,500mg of tablets a day but the most wonderful thing of all is that he has been seizure free since his accident in Febraury, 2008.

sarah ...

Congratulations on the settlement (I'm sure it's a welcome help!), but most of all, congratulations on the lack of seizures since 2008!!

juperee

i don't know dick about insurance but i remember i had 2 grand mals in one week and inbetween i had no idea where i was or anything i was having conversations with people who were'nt there very strange stuff.

very little recollection of what happened.

 

ian_s

had a simaler problem not long ago.although with regard to the claim,i need to keep the story quiet.

            how can i get those records without paying two bucks a page like they want?

                                   if no ideas,then thanks for reading.

don2010

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