Woman performs life-saving seizure first aid in Sheffield shopping centre

A woman from Worksop performed likely life-saving seizure first aid in a shopping centre in Sheffield when she saw a young woman having a seizure.

Allie Blackshaw, 25, (pictured, right) was shopping in Meadowhall shopping centre with her son and her brother on Friday 19 December, when she came across Charlotte Hoggard, 23, (pictured, left) in the throes of a tonic-clonic seizure.

Charlotte, from Rotherham, had been working at her temp job selling Moonshine at a kiosk in the shopping centre. She’d started to feel unwell and headed over to the toilets.

“I went to the toilet to have a minute breather, and the next thing I know, I’m in A&E,” she said.

Charlotte, whose epilepsy had been fairly well controlled before the incident, had fallen during the seizure and hit her head on a marble pillar reenforced with metal, causing serious damage to her skull.

Allie said: “We went down the Lanes and I just found Charlotte laid on the floor having a seizure. There was a massive pool of blood around her head from where she’d banged her head.”

Springing into action

Allie, who works as a support worker for Mencap and had had seizure first aid training before, sprang into action, using her son’s blanket to protect Charlotte’s head from further damage.

Allie continued: “I just jumped into care mode, grabbed my baby’s blanket and put it under her head to stem the bleeding.

“I started timing Charlotte’s seizure because I know how important it is to time a seizure and call an ambulance if it goes on longer than five minutes.”

In this case, because of Charlotte’s severe injury, a passer-by called an ambulance while Allie was carrying out the seizure first aid. Meadowhall security also attended the scene to help.

Another passer-by helped Allie put Charlotte in the recovery position once her seizure had stopped.

“I stayed with her until the paramedics came, I took all of her belongings, and I waited until she was put onto the trolley in the ambulance and then I left.”

“Thinking ‘What if?’”

Charlotte’s mum, Sam Hoggard, 61, (pictured) explained that she considers Allie their guardian angel.

“The neurosurgeons who looked after Charlotte in the hospital told me that if she hadn’t have had head protection after that initial blow to her head – because her seizure then went on for three-and-a-half minutes – she could have died,” she explained.

“Charlotte is so resilient and so brave. I’m so proud of the way she has recovered.

“But we’re still left thinking ‘What if?’ We have Allie to thank. All our friends and family are so thankful as well.

“It’s such an emotional time for us all because we know that if Allie hadn’t have been there, our daughter may not have made it.”

Epilepsy Action CEO Rebekah Smith said: “Allie is a leading example of an epilepsy ally, and we hope that when people hear this story, if they’re not already familiar, they are inspired to learn seizure first aid.

“Our CARE acronym (Comfort, Action, Reassure, Emergency) is a simple way to remember how to help someone having a seizure, and having this knowledge can make all the difference. Taking a few minutes to familiarise yourself with CARE could really save someone’s life.”

Emergency information

For Allie, Sam and Charlotte it was really important that Allie could access Charlotte’s emergency information which she had updated on her phone.

While Charlotte had left her phone at the kiosk where she was working, she was wearing a smartwatch, which had the information mirrored.

This allowed Allie to find out Charlotte’s condition, medication and emergency contacts. She rang Sam and Charlotte’s dad Graham.

Allie said: “I could give the information to the paramedics that she did have epilepsy, and I could name her medication.

“And because of this, she wasn’t alone. It would have taken a while for the hospital to find out who she was otherwise, and her parents would have been worrying because she wouldn’t have been in touch.”

Sam added: “For me, apart from the fact that Allie protected Charlotte’s head from turning to mush, that was the most important part.

“This gave me the ability to get in the car and get to my daughter when she was in that state. I feel like it would have been robbed from me if I couldn’t have been there with her.

“The paramedics didn’t even know that you could access that information on a watch.”

Watch our guide on updating your emergency information on iPhone and Android.

“Allie was there for us”

In January, Sam, Charlotte and Allie met for the first time at Allie’s home. Sam said: “She’s our superhero and a guardian angel for our family. She was absolutely everything that day.

“I’m a nurse and I’m always there for people, and, on this occasion, Allie was there for us.

“It’s a massive thing for us to know that Allie was there because, she told us that no one else really knew what to do.

“It was such a panicked situation, there was so much blood, she went blue – nobody wants to deal with that. And Allie was the one who knew what to do.”

Rebekah added: “We’re also impressed by Allie’s quick-thinking to check Charlotte for any medical ID, as we advise under the ‘Action’ section of CARE.

“We’d urge everyone with epilepsy to ensure their medical ID is set up, and for people to familiarise themselves with how to access this information on both smartphones and smartwatches.”

You can find out how to help someone having a seizure on the Epilepsy Action website.

For more on this story, read Epilepsy Today.