FULTON, Kan. (WDAF) — A little girl from rural Kansas is alive and doing better thanks in part to quick thinking by her 6-year-old sister Monday night.
Collins Morillo, 2, was airlifted to the hospital for treatment after suffering from a major lengthy febrile seizure. Though most such seizures aren’t life-threatening, this one required emergency treatment.
Collins hadn’t been feeling well most of the day Monday and had a fever that topped 103, the family said. Her mom gave her Tylenol and put her to bed after she wasn’t interested in dinner.
Addyson, 6, shares a room with her noticed something was wrong and went to get her mother. “She was doing something weird,” Addyson recalled.
“When I scooped her up she was blue, she was limp, but her limbs were still shaking. She kind of had some foamy type stuff at the mouth,” the girls’ mother Allee Morillo explained.
The family wasn’t sure exactly when the seizure started, but suspected it had gone on for several minutes. Her mother called 911 from their home in rural Bourbon County, Kansas, which is more than an hour south of Kansas City.
After the ambulance arrived, paramedics informed the Morillo family Collins would have to be airlifted to Children’s Mercy Hospital in Kansas City.
“We just couldn’t get her to wake up really. Her stats were really low, her respiration was really low,” Allee said.
By early Tuesday morning, after treatment at the hospital, doctors had Collins feeling well enough to go home. She was a little tired from her care and big adventure in the air, but mom says she definitely owes her sister a thank you.
“If she wouldn’t have come and got me, the fact she was already blue, I truly don’t know what would have happened,” Allee said.
Addyson – who says she doesn’t believe she’s a hero because she doesn’t have a cape – is just a little jealous of one thing: Her little sister got to ride in a helicopter before her.
“We’ll just get you a special ride, we don’t need to do that again,” her mother joked.
Febrile seizures, or a seizure caused by fever, can happen at any age in children, but are most common before they reach school age, often at age two. Doctors say you should seek medical attention if they last longer than a few minutes or if your child is struggling to breathe or turning blue.
It’s important to know most seizures in children caused by fevers aren’t life-threatening. They happen to an estimated one in every 25 families.
