Yes, infant seizures can cause brain injury, which is why immediate attention and care are so crucial. Infant seizures, including neonatal seizures, are not just frightening; they can disrupt a baby’s brain activity, leading to potential long-term damage if not promptly diagnosed and treated.
As parents, watching your newborn experience seizures is a terrifying ordeal, and it’s natural to feel overwhelmed and helpless. But understanding the dangers and the urgency of getting the right medical care can make all the difference in protecting your child’s future.
What is a seizure?
A seizure is a sudden disruption of the brain’s normal electrical activity that can temporarily disrupt normal brain function. This disruption can affect consciousness, muscle control, behavior, and sensory perception. Seizures vary in type and severity, ranging from brief, subtle episodes to prolonged, intense convulsions. In infants, seizures can be particularly dangerous because their developing brains are highly vulnerable to damage.
Seizures in infants can occur in one area of the brain or affect many parts of the brain simultaneously. They can be triggered by various factors, including brain injury, trauma, infections, metabolic issues, or oxygen deprivation during birth. Regardless of the cause, infant seizures require immediate medical attention to minimize the risk of lasting neurological damage and to safeguard the child’s overall development.
Signs and Symptoms of Infant Seizures
Seizures in infants can manifest in many ways, some of which may be subtle and easily mistaken for normal infant behavior. Common signs and symptoms include:
- Jerking or Stiffening Movements: Repetitive jerking of the arms or legs, stiffening of the body, or rhythmic movements that seem out of the ordinary.
- Twitching or Lip Smacking: Small, repetitive twitching movements of the face, lips, or extremities that might appear brief but could signal seizure activity.
- Eye Movements: Unusual eye movements, such as rolling eyes, staring spells, or rapid blinking, can indicate a seizure, especially if the baby appears unresponsive during these episodes.
- Unusual Crying or Irritability: A sudden behavior change, such as inconsolable crying or irritability unrelated to hunger or discomfort, may be linked to seizure activity.
- Changes in Breathing Patterns: Irregular breathing, gasping, or episodes where the baby briefly stops breathing can indicate seizure activity.
- Apnea or Cyanosis: Apnea (pauses in breathing) or cyanosis (a bluish tint to the skin) may occur during some seizures, signaling a need for urgent medical evaluation.
Seizures in infants can be difficult to recognize, as some symptoms can be subtle, such as brief staring spells, slight twitching, or lip smacking. Parents might mistake these subtle signs for normal movements or startle reflexes, delaying detecting and treating a seizure disorder.
Because early intervention is key to preventing further brain damage, parents must be vigilant and seek immediate medical attention if they notice any unusual behaviors that might indicate seizure activity.
The Dangers of Undiagnosed, Uncontrolled Infant Seizures
Seizure activity in an infant must be diagnosed and treated immediately because seizures can cause nerve cell injury and kill brain cells. Seizures may also adversely alter brain function in other ways, such as rewiring brain circuitry. The longer a seizure lasts, the more damage it does to the brain.
Some factors that influence how much brain damage a seizure will cause include:
- The cause of the seizure
- Seizure severity
- How much electrographic seizure activity is present
- The degree of brain involvement
- The duration of the seizure
Infant Seizures Should Be Treated Immediately
Prompt treatment of infant seizures is critical to protecting a child’s developing brain and minimizing the risk of long-term damage. When seizures are left undiagnosed and untreated, the abnormal electrical activity in the brain can cause significant harm, leading to a cascade of neurological issues that may affect the child’s ability to learn, move, and grow. The longer a seizure goes untreated, the greater the potential for permanent brain injury and the associated complications.
Why Immediate Intervention Matters
Seizures can injure nerve cells, disrupt normal brain function, and alter the brain’s circuitry, making it more susceptible to future episodes. Delays in diagnosis and treatment can allow seizures to continue unchecked, compounding the damage and increasing the likelihood of severe developmental and cognitive impairments.
Immediate intervention with appropriate medical treatment is essential to stop the seizures, protect the brain, and address the underlying causes to prevent further harm.
Potential Long-Term Consequences of Untreated Seizures
Untreated seizures in infants are linked to a variety of serious health conditions, including:
- Declines in Cognitive Function: Recurrent or prolonged seizures can disrupt brain development, leading to significant cognitive impairments. Infants may struggle with memory, attention, and processing information as they grow, which can impact their ability to learn and reach developmental milestones.
- Cerebral Palsy: Seizures can cause damage to the parts of the brain that control movement and muscle coordination, increasing the risk of cerebral palsy. This lifelong condition can result in difficulties with motor skills, posture, and balance, often requiring extensive physical therapy and medical support.
- Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities: Frequent or severe seizures can interfere with brain areas responsible for reasoning, problem-solving, and communication. This can lead to intellectual disabilities and developmental delays that affect a child’s ability to perform everyday tasks, interact with others, and achieve academic success.
- Behavioral and Emotional Challenges: Untreated seizures can also impact the emotional and behavioral development of a child. They may experience mood swings, anxiety, attention deficits, or hyperactivity, complicating social interactions and overall well-being.
- Increased Risk of Epilepsy: Untreated seizures in infancy can lead to the development of epilepsy, a chronic condition characterized by recurrent seizures. Managing epilepsy often involves long-term medication use and ongoing medical care, which can further complicate a child’s developmental trajectory.
The Importance of Early Diagnosis and Treatment
The impact of seizures on a baby’s brain can be profound, but with timely and effective intervention, many of the potential long-term effects can be minimized or avoided. Parents and caregivers should be vigilant in seeking medical attention at the first sign of a seizure to ensure their child receives the best possible care, giving them the greatest chance to develop to their fullest potential.
Seizures Have Many Possible Causes
The most common cause of infant seizures is hypoxic ischemic encephalopathy (HIE), or birth asphyxia. This is a serious condition where a newborn is deprived of oxygen at or around the time of birth.
Other causes of and risk factors for neonatal seizures include the following:
- Umbilical cord compression
- Trauma to the baby’s brain during delivery
- Intracranial hemorrhage
- Central nervous system infection
- Metabolic problems, such as hypoglycemia, hypocalcemia and hypomagnesemia
The combined presence of a low Apgar score (< 5 at five minutes), acidosis (pH < 7.0), and the baby having to be intubated and placed on a ventilator should alert physicians that seizure activity is likely to have occurred or will occur. Research shows these factors have an 80% positive predictive value for clinical seizures.
If a baby has risk factors for seizures or is suspected to have seizure activity, it is critical that the physician closely monitor the baby. An EEG will likely be performed to determine if seizure activity is happening in the brain. In addition, an MRI or CT scan may be done to determine the cause of the seizures.
Treatment for Infant Seizures
When a baby shows signs of seizure activity, physicians should immediately evaluate the cause of the seizure and implement therapeutic interventions to treat the root cause and prevent further episodes and brain injury. In addition to treating the underlying cause, the seizure itself typically requires emergent therapy since it can adversely affect the baby’s stability.
Antiepileptic drugs like phenobarbital, levetiracetam, or fosphenytoin are commonly used to control seizures in infants. These drugs help suppress abnormal electrical activity in the brain, reduce seizure frequency, and protect nerve cells from injury.
Alongside medication, infants may require supportive interventions such as oxygen therapy, hydration, and continuous monitoring to maintain stability during treatment
LEGAL RECOURSE FOR FAMILIES AFFECTED BY MEDICAL NEGLIGENCE
When infant seizures are undiagnosed or untreated, the consequences can be devastating, leading to lifelong disabilities and challenges for the child. In some cases, this harm could have been prevented if healthcare providers had acted promptly and appropriately.
When medical professionals fail to recognize, diagnose, or adequately treat seizure activity in an infant, it may constitute medical negligence—a serious breach of their duty to provide standard care.
Understanding your legal rights in these situations is crucial, as pursuing legal action can help secure the resources needed for your child’s future care and hold those responsible accountable.
WHAT CONSTITUTES MEDICAL MALPRACTICE?
Medical malpractice occurs when a healthcare provider deviates from the accepted standard of care, resulting in harm to the patient. In the context of infant seizures, this can involve several negligent actions, including:
- Failure to Diagnose: Not recognizing or appropriately responding to symptoms of seizures in an infant, which delays critical intervention.
- Inadequate Monitoring: Failing to monitor an at-risk infant properly, especially when they have known risk factors for seizures, such as birth asphyxia, low Apgar scores, or metabolic imbalances.
- Delayed or Improper Treatment: Not administering timely and appropriate treatments, such as antiepileptic medications, could have mitigated the seizures and prevented brain damage.
- Misdiagnosis or Ignoring Symptoms: Mistaking seizure activity for other benign conditions, leading to missed opportunities for life-saving interventions.
If these or other negligent actions have caused harm to your child, you may have grounds for a medical malpractice claim. A successful claim can help cover the costs of ongoing medical care, therapies, and other support services your child will need due to their injuries.
HOW FAMILIES CAN SEEK JUSTICE AND COMPENSATION
Families affected by medical negligence have the right to pursue legal action against the responsible parties. Consulting with a birth injury lawyer at ABC Law Centers is the first step in understanding your options. An experienced attorney can review your child’s medical records, consult with medical experts, and determine whether the standard of care was breached.
Pursuing legal recourse not only provides families with the financial support necessary for their child’s care, but also holds medical professionals accountable, prompting improvements in medical practices to prevent similar tragedies from occurring to others.
If you suspect that medical negligence played a role in your child’s seizures, consulting with an attorney can be a critical step in protecting your family’s rights and securing the justice and compensation your child deserves.
Video: Causes of Neonatal Seizures
Sources
- Medscape, Neonatal Seizures
- U.Chicago Medicine, Early detection of seizures in infant crucial to brain development
- UCSF Benioff Children’s Hospitals, Neonatal seizures
- Epilepsy Foundation, Diagnosis of Seizures in Newborns
- UpToDate, Clinical features, evaluation, and diagnosis of neonatal seizures
