MedicAlert came into Marilyn Peter's life at just the right time: three weeks before she had a very serious epileptic episode.
Marilyn was having a meeting with her lawyer when she first learned about MedicAlert and the services they offer. He recommended she register right away given her medical history with epilepsy.
"Before MedicAlert, I had to teach my young children how to recognize the signs of a seizure and what to do if I had one. It was upsetting to have to put them in that situation, and also didn't account for times when I was out on my own," says Marilyn. "When my lawyer told me about MedicAlert I was so relieved that there was an organization that could help to be my voice in an emergency."
A few weeks after registering with MedicAlert, Marilyn was visiting British Columbia and had an epileptic episode in front of a drug store. She fell to the ground and a security guard who recognized her MedicAlert bracelet had someone call an ambulance.
"I remember feeling so panicked when everything started going dark and blurry. I couldn't hear much and was worried that people wouldn't know what was going on," recalls Marilyn. "The scary thing about epilepsy is that sometimes people mistake seizure symptoms for other ailments and aren't sure how to help. The first thing I remember hearing was the security guard saying to call an ambulance because he had seen my bracelet. I'm so grateful he was there and, thanks to my MedicAlert ID, knew what to do."
There have since been other incidents when Marilyn has relied on her MedicAlert bracelet and has found that overall awareness is really good, even with the general public.
"I've had episodes on public transit before and people have known to look for the MedicAlert bracelet. It's been so reassuring to know that perfect strangers are aware of MedicAlert and that this bracelet provides the information that I'm not able to when I'm having a seizure."
