ASSESSING RISKS AND BENEFITS AFTER A SEIZURE: DECISIONS ABOUT EVERYDAY LIFE – “CAN MY CHILD SWIM?”

We were recently asked to comment about a lawsuit against a physician who had not prohibited his patient with epilepsy from swimming. The child had drowned, as do a number of children who swim. It was not clear that this child had had a seizure at that time. Thinking about whether your child should be allowed to swim involves asking many of the same questions we asked about bike riding. “How old is the child?” “How frequently does he have seizures?” “How important is swimming?” “How well will he be supervised?” Every child who swims should be supervised. The child whose seizures are not frequent should clearly be well supervised. But, if well-supervised, should he be prohibited from swimming? These individualized decisions will be dependent upon your analysis of the risks and benefits.

Similar questions can be asked about allowing your child to go out and play, stay at another child’s house, climb a tree, go on trips or go to camp, and drive a car.

We permit normal children to take risks. We do not want to shelter a child who has seizures from all risks. Taking risks is part of the growing process. We want simply to shelter that child from the increased risk associated with a seizure recurrence. But this sheltering must be accomplished at an acceptable cost.

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