It’s early September. You’re leading a college orientation group on a four-day backpacking trip. It’s 1500 hrs (3:00 PM) on a nice, sunny day. You arrived in camp about 30 minutes ago.
Suddenly you hear one of the participants yelling, “Jerome is having convulsions!” You remember talking to Jerome about his history of seizures and that he has not had a seizure in a year. You walk quickly to Jerome. Your heart is racing, your palms are sweating, and you feel your breathing quicken as you click into the habit of scene size-up and initial assessment. Jerome is actively seizing with a spoon tinged with blood in the corner of his mouth.
You kneel next to the patient and cradle his head in your hands. You remove the spoon from his mouth. He seems to have an airway and is nosily breathing, which improves when you wipe saliva from his mouth. There is no active bleeding and no obvious injuries. Jerome is not responding to voice or pain. You look around and see a lot of anxious campers staring at the scene. You tell them it’s a seizure, Jerome will be ok and ask them to calm down while you think, "Vitals...head-to-toe...sample."