Excessive gadget use causes girl to have seizures

Too much of anything can be a bad thing, but who knew that excessive gadget use would have the potential to cause seizures in a child?

In a recent Facebook post, Filipino mummy Maricon Molvizar Collamar shared the story of how her daughter, Mikayla, went through a terrible experience when she suffered seizures, and even temporary paralysis that according to doctors, were probably caused by excessive gadget use.

“Mummy, I can’t move my left arm!”

According to Maricon, at around 10-11:30 pm of June 27th, she heard her 6 year old daughter Mikayla, screaming for help. She initially thought that her daughter just saw a cockroach, but something felt off when her daughter kept on screaming and calling her name. She found Mikayla in their room, naked (since she just finished her bath), and suffering from a seizure. She checked to see if her daughter might have slipped and fell which could have caused the seizure, but there was no evidence to show that she fell.

She sat her daughter down on the bed, and asked her what happened. Her daughter responded, “Mummy, I can’t move my left arm!,” which made Maricon even more worried since this had never happened before. She asked her daughter if she could move her fingers, but she still was unable to do so.

Her daughter told her that moments before she had the seizure and a paralyzed arm, she was just playing with one of her earrings, when she suddenly felt dizzy, and had a seizure.

At around 12:30 am of June 28th, she took her to the hospital, to get her checked and see what might have caused the seizure.

It was due to her excessive use of gadgets

She underwent a battery of tests, including a CT scan and an xray to check and see if she had any internal injuries. She also underwent an EEG and MRI to check her brain, and possibly identify the cause of the seizure.

According to one of her doctors, a neuro paediatrician, or a specialist that treats disorders in children’s brains, Mikayla had suffered from a focal seizure, which was probably caused by her excessive gadget use.

Maricon shared that ever since the summer vacation, her daughter kept on using gadgets non-stop, such as using the iPad or watching TV. Maricon shared that she just let her daughter use the gadgets since she was an entrepreneur, and had to finish orders for her clients, so she needed a way to keep her daughter preoccupied.

Maricon added that she was partly to blame for what happened to her daughter, since she was so busy at home, she just let her daughter use those gadgets to pass the time.

Thankfully, after that terrifying ordeal, Mikayla didn’t go through any more seizures. She was prescribed medication, and her gadget use was limited to 2 hours per day. Maricon shared that because of the restriction in her gadget use, Mikayla had to think of other means of keeping herself occupied without the use of gadgets.