Being the parent of a child with special needs is difficult but rewarding. Being the mother of a son who has been diagnosed with epilepsy has been challenging both emotionally and physically, but being able to stay home with him has been a special gift from God. Seizures cause the body to stiffen and shake, often resulting in physical exhaustion after the seizure ends. My 14 year old son started having seizures when he was 7 while playing a video game on Nintendo, the first version.
I remember the first seizure he had. I was sitting on the bed and he was in the bedroom playing The Legend of Zelda with his little brother. Joshua was 7 years old at the time. I heard him come into the room and say to me, “Mom, I see spots.” Well I thought maybe he was just playing and told him to sit on my bed. I noticed that his neck turned to the right and so did his eye. His eyes dug deep into their sockets and his body began to go rigid. He was still hearing my voice so I told him to try going to the bathroom.
I held her arm long enough for her to walk to the bathroom. Then she began to shake and her knees buckled. MY GOD! He couldn’t believe what was happening. I yelled at the top of my lungs for his father to come quickly. His father called 911 when I began to pray, “God, please don’t take my baby, please don’t take my son!” He had never experienced anyone having a seizure, especially my son.
The ambulance arrived and an IV was put into her arm. By the time we were halfway there, he snapped out of the seizure and started talking as if nothing had happened. It was the strangest thing. At the hospital they ran a series of tests to determine if she had any type of tumor or growth that could have caused seizure activity, but they found nothing.
It was determined that the flickering light from the game and the television caused the seizure.
In the early 1990s, Nintendo USA issued a warning that video games could cause seizures, noting that this could occur in children with epileptic tendencies. But the warnings about the games came after the creation of the game I was playing. Was Nintendo aware of this? That is a good question. In China, a series of Pokémon caused hundreds of people to flood emergency rooms with seizures at the same time. The point is that the games and shows had a flashing light that occurred at certain intervals in order to stimulate the player/watcher’s brain.
This blinking causes the pupil to open at irregular intervals, which induces a malfunction of the neurons in the brain. Once this happens, the seizure occurs. Diagnosing epilepsy after a photonic-induced seizure is nearly impossible, but here’s the thing: the first seizure can trigger epilepsy, and more seizures will occur.
After that first seizure, my son has at least 2 seizures a year. I never knew when they would happen, but I limited his exposure to flashing lights, didn’t allow him to play video games, made him wear protective sunglasses and stay away when there were police lights, etc. around.
I am constantly worried that he is having a seizure, but I am proud that my life allows me to be home with him.
Today I stay home and work designing websites and doing social media marketing because I want to be with him while he is sick. If you have children who love to play old video games, be sure to limit their time and have them sit away from the screen. Older televisions have this same screen flicker.
With lots of love.