A thought occurred to me as i was taking a call the other day. Most post ictal Pt's are confused and combative right?. but why. could it be that the family , bystanders ect have been screaming in a hateful tone to "stay down" "you cant get up" " your going to go to the ()*&^*&%^&*() hospital." So i tried something. i told the mom to have the dad stop yelling at his son and had her talk to him in a calm soothing voice and guess what...... he stopped being combative calmed down. who would have thought
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It is a bit more complex than just having a good bedside manner. The brain of a seizure patient is recovering from something similar to ventricular fibrillation, The connections are not working properly. The person may go through sensations of fear and anger. Things that might cause an otherwise non-violent person to feel threated and want to do something to protect himself/herself.
Having written all of that, the best way to help them to come around in a peaceful way, is to make them feel as comfortable as possible, as safe as possible. Hold their hand. Reassure them. Tell them you are there to take care of them, to help them. Don't restrain them any more than you need to to protect them from hurting themselves or others. When they start making sense, treat them with the respect that you would any other person making as much sense as they are then - not based on what was going on 5 minutes ago. Almost everyone will respond well to this approach. For the few who do not, remember to not put yourself in a position where they can easily hurt you. Once they are able to make sense, they can consent to, or refuse treatment, because they are no longer disoriented. For some, recovery will be brief, for others it may take hours to return to a normal level of consciousness.
You make an excellent point. We are there to help people, not to yell at them.
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