My brother has had epilepsy for over at least 30 years now and recently had a serious accident after having a seizure while waiting for his wife to pick him up at work. He fell flat on his face and unfortunately the local government he works for has a Taj Mahal so the floor was marble, or as hard as marble. He was in the hospital until today and will be dealing with the repercussions of this fall for some time.
So when I got the email from my sister about “seizure-alert dogs” it definitely caught my attention. The case for having one of these dogs goes something like this:
Seizure-alert dogs, as implied by their name, are dogs that can sense and notify their human companions of an oncoming seizure. This alerting behavior has been reported to occur several seconds to 45 minutes or more before the onset of the seizure. The dog does this by exhibiting marked changes in behavior, including close eye contact, circling, pawing, barking etc.
Although the article goes on to dispute some of the beliefs held by others it doesn’t seem far fetched at all to me. I’ve known since childhood that dogs (pets in general) have senses far superior to ours that can be useful in many situations. Besides what is the downfall to having one of the dogs? Maybe my brother would have been busy petting his buddy and that simple act may have been enough to keep his mind engaged and away from the seizure zone.
If you’d like to read more about seizure alert dogs check out the article at epilepsy.com.
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