Mina’s First Seizure: The Day Everything Changed

It all began on February 9, 2022—a day that started with laughter and fun but quickly turned into one of the scariest afternoons of our lives.

Around 4:30 pm., Mina was happily playing with blocks alongside her sister while I watched from the couch, enjoying the peaceful moment. The live-action Aladdin movie played in the background, adding a cheerful soundtrack to the day. Everything seemed normal.

Then Mina laid down on the floor, partially on the blocks. Because she has hypotonia, I thought maybe she was just getting tired. Her head was turned toward the TV, so I assumed she was still watching. She gently wiggled back and forth, and I even called out to her, thinking she was just being silly. I smiled and told my oldest to look at Mina because she was acting funny.

But she wasn’t playing.
She was having a seizure.

I only realized something was wrong when I noticed her lips starting to turn blue. Her eyes weren’t looking at the screen—they were fixed upward and to the left. Her arms were drawn tightly to her chest, and she was clenching her teeth. My heart dropped. I immediately called 911 and gently turned Mina onto her side. Panic filled the room.

My oldest daughter, overwhelmed and scared, ran upstairs crying, asking over and over, “Is Mina okay? Is Mina okay?”

The emergency responders arrived quickly, though it felt like an eternity. They assessed her in the house before carrying her out to the ambulance. I called my husband to come home right away and phoned my mother-in-law, who lived nearby, to let her know what was happening.

The ambulance took Mina to a hospital about 45 minutes away, but we weren’t allowed to ride with her. After finding someone to stay with our oldest, we made the anxious drive to the hospital.

When we arrived, Mina was nestled in the arms of a nurse. The nurse gently explained that she was the only one Mina felt comfortable with, so she held her and comforted her until we arrived. I’ll never forget the relief on Mina’s face when she saw us—she reached out right away.

She had an IV in place just in case, and the medical team ran a few tests. They determined it was a febrile seizure caused by a high fever. Oddly, she hadn’t shown signs of a fever that day, though she had seemed more tired than usual.

In the days that followed, Mina was sleepier than usual, but her sweet, joyful spirit remained. We believed this would be a one-time event—just a terrifying fluke. But it wasn’t. More seizures would come later, and our journey was only just beginning.