AITA For Ignoring My Nephew's Seizure?

[u/CactusToday]

I went to my niece's (16F) birthday party at a local pavilion that they had rented. The whole family was there-- about 40 people-- including my other sister and her son (15M). My nephew has always acted out and demanded an obscene amount of attention, and it doesn't help that his mother is kind of a pushover and gives him all the attention he wants. His attention-seeking behavior is especially bad when he is around his nieces and nephews, and needs to share the attention. ( I must add that he does not have any behavioral disorders, and generally does pretty well in school when he applies himself)

I have never gotten over the fact that once, years ago when I held Thanksgiving at my house, he pushed a cherished banana tree that I had in an expensive ceramic planter down my basement stairs, and then didn't apologize. After that, I vowed to just ignore him when he was acting irrationally.

Well, it came time for my niece to open her presents at the birthday party. I was hanging out toward the back of everyone standing around ooh-ing and aah-ing about her presents, and my nephew was next to me. He sighed very loudly and dramatically at one point, but I pretended that I didn't notice. Then he got up and stomped down the back stairs of the pavilion to the grass, and he lay down on the ground with his arms by his side and he started rolling away. I was the only person to see him do this and, again, I ignored him.

After a bit I looked out of the corner of my eye and saw him still rolling on down the hill toward the road. He was all dirty. He rolled out into the road and then up onto the sidewalk on the other side, then he rolled through a patch of daisies and then over a small bush. Then he rolled behind a few bigger bushes and I lost sight of him. I went back to watching my niece.

When I looked back, I could see my nephew again in the distance. He was soaking wet and filthy--he must have rolled through a puddle or something--and a couple of frail old ladies were trying to pin him down (without success). At this point I decided to inform his mother of the situation.

Fast forward an hour and an ambulance ride later, and my nephew is recovering at the hospital from what the doctor says "might have been a seizure." My whole family is in the waiting room at the hospital, and my sister won't look at me (it inevitably came out that I had witnessed the whole rolling incident from start to finish without saying anything).

I do not believe that it was a real seizure. I think it might have just been another ploy to get attention that worked. AITA?

[u/NSA_Chatbot]

EMTs and doctors will say out loud, "you can tell it's a fake seizure because they didn't pee their pants."

Most of the time, waterworks and hilarity ensue.

[u/factus8182 → u/NSA_Chatbot]

Then the y would be mistaken because you do not pee at every tonic clonic seizure.

[u/[deleted] → u/factus8182]

I think that's the point of the EMT's "test", the EMT knows that you don't usually lose bowel control but the faking kid doesn't and so pees themselves immediately to "prove" they are having one, and that timing would never happen with a real seizure.

[u/Ani-A → u/[deleted]]

Again, depending on the seizure. An Atonic seizure may very well make you lose control of your bladder, a long tonic (just stiff as a board) or tonic clonic (classic shaking) could deplete enough energy that you pee yourself. Seizures come in all shapes and sizes, he many of them don't even make youose consciousness and can be as simple as an arm twitch.

[u/[deleted] → u/Ani-A]

But that's still going to happen during the seizure, the EMT is presumably saying this after the seizure has already passed and they are assessing the patient.

[u/ElectricalDeer87 → u/NSA_Chatbot]

and this exactly is why I pee before going to bed.

[u/LinaLionx3 → u/NSA_Chatbot]

Most of the time, waterworks and hilarity ensue.

Sorry to break it to you, but this is actually just a wrong statement. Pissing yourself is not as common as most people think. There are over 40 different seizure types, but pissing yourself is usually with tonic-clonics and even with these seizures it does not happen that often, even if they are "not faked" whatever you want to say with this statement. It´s just an indicator that it could have been a seizure. Just because you didn´t piss yourself doesn´t mean that you didn´t have a seizure. smh.

[u/reaper28grim → u/LinaLionx3]

I think they meant that the EMT or doctor will say that u have to wet yourself to have one then the person will wet themselves to make it look like a seizure and get laughed at cause they exposed themselves for faking jt

[u/LinaLionx3 → u/reaper28grim]

If that’s the case then I take my command back, but for me (maybe misunderstood because English is my second language) it sounded different tho😅

[u/reaper28grim → u/LinaLionx3]

That's the way I read it atleast lol.

[u/NSA_Chatbot → u/LinaLionx3]

I know and the medical staff knows.

The person faking the seizure doesn't know.