School staff no longer allowed to administer seizure medication; no details on updated plan
An Okanagan parent says her nine-year-old son is unable to return to school after the B.C. government stopped allowing educational assistants (EAs) to administer seizure medication.
Suzanne Temple’s son Sebastian, who experiences seizures because of a rare brain condition called lissencephaly, was due to start Grade 4 at Giant’s Head Elementary School in Summerland, B.C., about 50 kilometres south of Kelowna.
Temple says Sebastian needs trained EAs to administer medication within seven minutes of a seizure starting, and Interior Health previously permitted schools to assign staff who could follow procedures for when a student had a seizure.
At the beginning of every school year, the health authority’s school nursing support services would train EAs to administer seizure medication, which could be in the form of swallowed pills, anal gel or nasal spray.
However, last Wednesday, she said, the school told her Interior Health had decided to put the plan “on hold,” implementing instead a new plan — but offered no details.
