Tuesday, June 12, 2012

Something Is Fishy About Commerce Secretary's Seizure Story

Commerace Secretary John Bryson is in a wee bit of trouble as he has been charged with felony hit and run in Los Angeles and then claimed he had a siezure.
From the LA Times: According to a statement from law enforcement officials, Bryson was driving through San Gabriel, not far from his family home in San Marino, shortly after 5 p.m. Saturday when he rear-ended a Buick whose driver was waiting for a passing train. Bryson stopped briefly to speak with three men inside the Buick, then returned to his car and left, striking the Buick a second time.
The driver followed Bryson for two miles, while calling 911 seeking help. In Rosemead, authorities said, Bryson crashed into a Honda Accord. He was found a short time later, alone in his car — he was not working and not accompanied by security, officials said — and unconscious.
There were no serious injuries, officials said, though three of the five people who were in the cars Bryson struck told paramedics they were in pain.
A Commerce Department official said Bryson had not suffered a seizure before. Medical professionals said he will probably require a battery of tests, including blood analysis, a brain-wave test and EKG monitoring.

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-commerce-crash-20120612,0,6308707.story
I am not a neurologist, but I have seen seizures.  Lot's of seizures. I've seen probably seen more than 15,000 seizures in my 30 years working with the disabled and non-disabled, and that number is probably an understatement.  I've also studied about seizures and have read hundreds if not thousands of case histories including medical histories, of people with seizures   So, I have some knowledge about seizures.
I don' believe Bryson had a true seizure when he was driving erratically.  Something else may have happened, but it wasn't a seizure.
First, a person suffering a seizure will not be driving a car, get into an accident, talk with the other people involved and then drive off and then get into another accident and then fall into unconsciousness.  Then he is taken to the hospital and released overnight?
It all does not make sense.
First, I have not heard of a person who drives that amount of distance and talks to some people all during a seizure.  And then when he is about to be caught, he goes into unconsciousness?  A person can certainly fake being unconsciousness.  It would be nice to find out how long he was out and did the first responders see him unconscious?  It doesn't make sense that he went all that time without being unconscious and then all of a sudden, he became unconscious.
Then, why was he discharged from the hospital after staying overnight?  If he truly had a seizure and had no history of seizures and the seizure lasted for extended time, he should have admitted to the hospital immediately and stayed longer than overnight and given a battery of tests instead of go back to Washington D.C. and get tested.  This could be a life threatening situation that cannot be handled with an overnight observation.  It is possible that flying and the different air pressures will set off a person with a seizure, so why chance it on a cross-country flight?
Reports also said he was given anti-seizure medicine?  Why, there are many different types of  medicines for different kind of seizures.  And you cannot just give a person anti-seizure medicine without a proper work up, including blood work and tests like EEGs, C-T Scans and MRI's, just to name a few tests.  And you just cannot give a person anti-seizure medicine because the medicine has to work it's way into a person's system and they have to do a lot of blood work to determine if the medicine is working.  Seizure medicine is extremely complicated and is not prescribed like Tylenol.
Now, could Bryson have a medical condition?  Sure, he could have a series of mini-strokes, which are not seizures.  He might also had a head injury from the accident.  He also could have faked all of this to avoid getting into trouble but he doesn't seem like a person who would do that but you never know what people do in stressful situations.  But a seizure?  I doubt it.

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