'I Sustained Terrible Injuries From Epileptic Seizures'

Serene Low shares how she’s lived with epilepsy for 47 years and why she’s committed to raising awareness on this much-misunderstood neurological disorder.

- Poon Li-Wei

My mother didn’t tell me till much later that when I was an infant, I had epilepsy. It started from a very high fever that led into a seizure. She sent me to the nearest clinic, where the doctor soaked me in a tub of ice-cold water to bring the temperature down. Since then, I would have seizures every time I had a fever. Thankfully, the seizures stopped when I reached seven years old and I was able to attend school normally. Little did I know that at nineteen years of age, I would experience a relapse.

How it happened

I was in Port Dickson for a short getaway with my friends and siblings. We had so much fun, we hardly slept that night. After about an hour’s nap, I was playing in the knee-deep water when a seizure happened. My brother’s friend raised the alarm when he saw me face down in the water for too long. When he turned me over, my face had turned purple and my body had swelled up. They rushed me to the nearest clinic where the doctor resuscitated me in the nick of time.

Dealing with reality and moving on

When we got back to Kuala Lumpur, I asked my mother more about my seizure. I was shocked and devastated to learn I had such a history. More seizures followed and frequent trips were made to the hospital, where I was eventually diagnosed as suffering from generalised tonic-clonic seizures (also known as grand mal seizures).