A weather presenter from Melbourne has spoken about the harrowing moment her 11-month-old son suffered from a seizure.
Sonia Marinelli, who works for local Nine News, detailed how helpless and traumatised she felt in her heartbreaking recount.
‘What was happening? Was he dying? Would whatever this was result in brain damage? The most horrendous thoughts were running through my head,’ she wrote for Nine Honey.
Sonia Marinelli (second on the right), who works for local Nine News, detailed how helpless and traumatised she felt in her heartbreaking recount
Sonia has spoken about the harrowing moment her 11-month-old son suffered from a seizure
‘Carrying my jerking child, I ran out the front door and down the steps of my house.
‘I don’t know where I was running. I didn’t know and I didn’t care.’
The mother-of-three explained that with every passing moment and with each convulsion she thought her son, Easton, was going to die.
She said that she knew something wasn’t right when all three of her children woke up that day with fevers but cast it to the back of her mind when they seemed to be okay.
The mother-of-three explained that with every passing moment and with each convulsion she thought her son, Easton, (centre) was going to die
It was once they were home for lunch that ‘all hell broke loose’ and Easton sat up straight before jerking his head violently on the headrest of his chair, instantly sending Sonia and her husband Chris into panic mode.
Sonia described Easton’s arms ‘jerking out’ and his body shuddering – it was clear to them he was having a seizure.
It was at this point Chris ordered an ambulance as Sonia rushed to Easton as his eyes rolled back into his head.
Once they were home for lunch that ‘all hell broke loose’ and Easton sat up straight before jerking his head violently on the headrest of his chair
‘I yelled to Chris to call an ambulance while I rushed to him, just as his eyes rolled back into his head,’ she said (Sonia pictured with Easton)
Although Sonia said she had heard about emergency calls through interviews she had done in her career, in the horror of the moment it didn’t help and all she could do was panic.
She remembered that she was screaming at her husband, asking where the ambulance was and how long they had to wait.
‘His fragile body was jerking with every surge, his eyes turning back into their sockets, but gradually, slowly, and within a few minutes the jerking had slowed and eventually it was coming to an end.
‘I started to breathe – maybe he’d be okay. But then his eyes started to close, and he began losing consciousness and again my adrenalin surged,’ she said.
‘His fragile body was jerking with every surge, his eyes turning back into their sockets, but… eventually it was coming to an end,’ she wrote
Although Sonia said she had heard about emergency calls through her job, in the horror of the moment it didn’t help and all she could do was panic
Sonia explained that going through her head in that moment was a variety of questions that she didn’t have the answer to.
Questions such as whether she was meant to keep him awake, or shake him.
Eventually the ambulance arrived and within moments they were telling Sonia that her son was having a febrile convulsion, which is a seizure caused by a fever, and he was going to make a full recovery.
Eventually the ambulance arrived and within moments they were telling Sonia that her son was having a febrile convulsion
‘While I rode to the Royal Childrens Hospital in the back of the ambulance, my baby in my arms, he started to wail.
‘He was clearly traumatised and so was I. But I didn’t care. All I could do was hold him tight and thank the heavens that he was okay.’
According to the Royal Children’s Hospital one in 30 children in Australia will have one.