Foodcourt employees save student after epilepsy seizure

On Tuesday morning, a student suffered an epileptic seizure in the Foodcourt on Erasmus Plaza. However, several quick thinking Foodcourt employees saved the day.

Dennis Lin from Asian street food store Sohmi was just opening up on Tuesday morning when he heard screaming. “At first I didn’t realise what was going on, but then an employee from the Satébar came and said it was a student.” According to Lin, the student was alone watching videos on her phone when she had the seizure.

Özcan Özemir from kebab shop Has saw it happen at the same time. “She went completely purple, she was choking. I thought she was having a heart attack.” Several employees from the Foodcourt, including Özemir and Lin, ran over to help the student. “Initially I thought she’d swallowed her tongue,” says Özemir. “I’ve seen that happen sometimes at football matches.” That wasn’t the case; she was choking on her own mucus. Together with Lin, he moved the girl onto her side, with her head downwards. That helped. The mucus came out. Meanwhile, other onlookers called security and 112.

Intense

The university emergency response team were quickly on the scene and were able to stabilise the student. Eventually she didn’t need to go to hospital: her father came and collected her. “It was a really intense experience. We’re glad for her that it all ended well. If she’d been here on her own, she could have died,” says Özemir.

It’s also a lesson for Foodcourt employees. “I’m going to talk to my employer about doing a First Aid course. Now we have to rely on the emergency response team from the university, but they’re too far away. I had no idea what to do. Fortunately, it was fine in the end, but the response could have been faster,” concludes the Has employee.