Seizure survivors can emerge confused and belligerent, suspicious of their rescuers

Evidence

When she came to, the woman was suspicious of me and the people from the apartment building who had brought water; I learned that people who have seizures can be confused and even belligerent as they regain consciousness. For her, we had come out of nowhere. While the paramedics gently questioned her, I sat nearby and held on to her dog’s leash; I felt responsible to the dog, too, who was clearly distressed. Eventually the people from the apartment building went back inside, and I stayed to answer questions because I was the only person who had seen what had happened. It became clear that (probably because we looked the same age) the paramedics assumed I was her friend and that we had been walking together. No, I said, I was just a passerby. At this, one of the paramedics thanked me for staying, implying that this was an inconvenience. But that other world—in which I had been walking to the grocery store to buy things for dinner—was so remote that I could barely remember what I was supposed to have been doing. — Jenny Odell, How to Do Nothing, 441

Categorization

• SHARE: The observation that post-seizure people can be belligerent and that paramedics’ gratitude implies staying was inconvenient is oddly specific—worth sending to someone in emergency medicine or first aid training.
• XREF: connects to: Survivors helped others even while still perceiving a real danger of death — John Drury, The role of social identity processes…, 67
• yield-rescued: below the book’s yield-target cutoff, included anyway for connecting to: Survivors helped others even while still perceiving a real danger of death — John Drury, The role of social identity processes…, 67

Broader Connections

• Survivors helped others even while still perceiving a real danger of death #complicates (0.75) — John Drury, The role of social identity processes…, 67