The Healys sped home after receiving an urgent call that their child was ill.
WHEN AUDREY and Patrick Healy left their 21-month-old daughter Aoife (pictured above) with her grandparents in Newtownmountkennedy, Co Wicklow one Saturday morning last January she was in great form, happily settling down to watch The Jungle Book.
"We were building a house and went down to Wexford that morning to see a kitchen," says Audrey.
At 1pm she saw a missed call from her parents and rang back to be told, "you have to come, there's something wrong with Aoife". They sped back and arrived as their daughter was having convulsions in the back of an ambulance outside the house.
Aoife was taken to Tallaght hospital where she had another seizure, was placed on a ventilator and transferred to Temple Street hospital.
"We were unable to travel with her, as she required a specialist medical team. We travelled behind, scared and frightened," Audrey recalls. "We were relieved once we entered intensive care to see our little princess waving at us."
Aoife recovered quickly, although a bug prolonged her stay in hospital. Before she was discharged, Audrey and her husband asked to be shown basic lifesaving skills, such as cardio pulmonary resuscitation (CPR), "in case something really bad happened".
They still don't know what caused Aoife's seizures, as she had shown no signs of a raised temperature beforehand, which would be expected in the case of febrile convulsions. A CT scan came back clear, as did an electroencephalogram (EEG), recording electrical brain activity for signs of epilepsy.
However, six weeks later, when Aoife was at home in Clara Vale, Co Wicklow, her temperature rose to 39.1 degrees. Audrey gave her Nurofen but within minutes she went into a convulsion. This time her parents were prepared.
"I turned her on her side, kept her airway clear and stripped her down," says Audrey. Then she administered rectal diazepam, a sedative, which they keep in the fridge. "She started to come around before the ambulance came. She was taken to A&E in Tallaght but was home again that night."
Although febrile convulsions can be terrifying to witness, they are surprisingly common and rarely result in any harm to the child.
However, if the convulsions last a long time, or the child suffers several attacks in quick succession, there may be slight disturbances in brain function.
These seizures occur in up to one in 20 children between the ages of one and four, but almost all will grow out of them by the age of five. They are caused by a sudden spike in body temperature.
Once a child has had a febrile convulsion, he or she is more likely to suffer another. It is essential to try to keep the temperature down by removing clothing, opening the window, sponging with tepid water and giving doses of mild painkillers such as paracetamol (eg Calpol) or ibuprofen (eg Nurofen) within the recommended guidelines. Paracetamol suppositories (eg Paralink) will act faster than an oral dose.
Audrey does not go anywhere with Aoife now without the diazepam in the changing bag. "You always have this fear if you do leave her with someone." And her grandparents are understandably nervous about caring for her now, having undergone such a frightening ordeal.
Although Audrey had learnt first aid years ago, she resolved in Temple Street hospital that she would do a refresher course, and one that dealt specifically with children. She helped the north Wicklow branch of Cuidiú to organise one with ClapHandies and nine parents attended the all-day Saturday course two weeks ago.
"It is quite intense for parents to take in," says Audrey but she reckons a one-day course is probably the best option for most time-pressed parents. She liked the way everybody could ask questions relating to their specific worries. She says all parents should learn first aid.