Our son, Trent, was born a healthy baby boy on August 1, 2008.  He’s been a big kid since the beginning, weighing in at 9 lbs and measuring over 21 inches.  He was born by cesarean section because he was breech.  Everything about the birth including all the ultrasounds and other tests leading up to and after his birth were always completely normal.  For the first three and a half months everything was going perfectly, he was happy-go-lucky, playful, alert and in every way developing completely as one would expect.

That is why what happened the evening before Thanksgiving 2008 was such a shock.  After a bottle feeding from dad, Trent suddenly cocked his head to the right, his eyes drifting and locking up and to his right and his arms stretching out wide to either side and staying there.  It took some moments to realize something was actually wrong as it just looked like Trent’s attention was simply being held by something.  But soon enough it was apparent something wasn’t right.

With sheer panic running through us we called 911 and had the paramedics on the way.  In the meantime we were trying to get Trent to come out of this “episode”.  We tried calling his name, clapping our hands, gently shaking him and even started CPR.  We eventually put a little water on his face and this seemed to bring him out of it.  All this took place in less than a minute and a half and by the time the paramedics arrived Trent was completely back to normal and acting as if nothing had ever happened.  We had to explain to the paramedics what had happened but we no longer needed their services.  They checked out Trent, took a report and told us to keep our eyes on him and not to hesitate to call if it happened again.  This all started and ended so quickly it left us questioning ourselves if it was really anything to be worried about. It was pretty scary and confusing.

We woke up the next day and began preparations for our Thanksgiving dinner.  But sure enough, before too long, Trent had another episode.  This one didn’t last very long, maybe 30 seconds, but it was enough to confirm we weren’t imagining things.  We immediately called our pediatrician.  The doctor said to keep our eye on him and if the episodes were to get longer or if they changed dramatically in any way we should take him in to the emergency room, otherwise wait until Monday and bring Trent in to see him.