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Picture this: You have just taken your seat in class just like any other day. Your professor has barely had time to get more than a few words out, and one of your fellow students falls to the floor. You soon realize they are having a seizure.  

Would you know what to do?  

Most of us would freeze and have no idea what to do in a situation like this. However, Grand View students Sarah Baker and Christian Birdsell knew exactly what to do.

This is exactly what happened when a GV student had a serious seizure in Prof. Ahmadu Baba-Singhri’s Social Problems class earlier this fall. The incident happened right after the professor took attendance.

“When he started to seize, I had no idea what was going on,” said Helen Carrey, an eye-witness who was in class that day. “I thought he was stretching, but something didn’t seem right when he started to shake and then fell on the floor.”

Sarah Baker saw the incident, as well.

“I just knew that it was important because … he was mid-air on the chair,” Baker said. “He was extended back, so I knew it was important for him to get to the floor where he could not harm himself.”

The student who experienced the seizure has asked not to be identified in this story but said: “I knew my surroundings before it happened, but while it happens, I’m in a state of like (being) blacked out.”

Baba-Singhri said everyone in the room was panicking and in a state of shock. This is when Baker and Birdsell stepped up.

Baker said that Birdsell grabbed the student’s legs while she grabbed his top half, and they got him on to the ground safely. They then made sure his arms were not flapping on the metal frame of a nearby window.

“They acted like they really knew what they were doing,” Baba-Singhri said. “The guy kept wanting to stand up; they kept telling him ‘No.’”

Baker said it was important to keep the student immobilized for his own protection.

“I was worried that he was going to do some damage to his brain and being unconscious for so long the way that he was violently jerking,” Baker said.

While all of this was happening, Carey called 911.  

Baker said that it seemed to take the ambulance forever to arrive but that it was really 10 to 12 minutes.

“I think it took a little longer because they got lost,” Baba-Singhri said. “According to them, they were given the wrong location. We saw them and got security to gobring them in.”  

When the paramedics arrived on the scene, the rest of the class had to leave the room, and the student was taken to the Iowa Lutheran Hospital.

Baker attributed her reaction to her background as a healthcare worker.

“I have been a certified nurse assistant for seven years so I have seen seizure happen before,” Baker said.

Although the class was canceled for the day, when the class next met two days later, Baba-Singhri and his students gave Baker and Birdsell a round of applause. A few days later, the student who experienced the seizure returned to class.

“Now, months after the fact, (the student) is very well recovered,” Baba-Singhri said. “He is back in class and doing very well.”

Recently, Baker and Birdsell were presented with framed awards and $100 gift cards to the Grand View Bookstore. Carey said the award was well-deserved but added that she was not surprised by Baker’s actions.

“Sarah is a pretty outgoing student and is always asking questions and making comments,” Carey said. “She is involved in the classroom and cares about her education. I feel like she did well during this situation because she has those mother-like instincts. She never second-guessed what was going on. She noticed the situation and took charge.”

Baba-Singhri was also impressed.

“You should have been there just to see it honestly,” Baba-Singhri said. “I’ve watched things like that on TV but never seen in real life. What they did was super. I am very proud of them.”