Morgan’s Story — Embrace saved her life

Our efforts and hopes at Empatica go beyond building sophisticated wearables. We strive to see people with epilepsy and their families live freely.

Each Embrace story we receive from our users is not just precious feedback that helps us improve, it deeply touches us, and helps the Epilepsy Community as well.

In a previous post, we promised to feature your stories from time to time, and here we are to keep our promise and contribute to spreading #EpilepsyAwareness together.

Meet Morgan McGrath, one of our epilepsy heroes and an Embrace user, diagnosed with epilepsy when she was almost 25. Her diagnosis took away her confidence and she lived in constant anxiety of when her next seizure would occur and if there would be somebody to help her.

Morgan loved to run and live a healthy lifestyle, but she was not able to do so anymore for fear of going on a run and having a seizure with nobody knowing where she was. In her story she tells us about one occasion when the Embrace saved her life by alerting her parents when she was in the middle of a life- threatening seizure. She also tells us about her epilepsy journey with the Embrace, and how it has helped her regain her confidence and to even push herself to run again despite her diagnosis.

Her Story

I was almost 25 years old, and had my first two seizures on June 18th, 2016. Since then, I lost my confidence and have always lived in anxiety. My friends and family were also always stressed due to my condition. I used to live a very active lifestyle. I love to run.

I stopped once the seizures started because I was too scared of being alone and having a seizure. I was also depressed from being diagnosed with Epilepsy, especially when I was almost 25 years old. I Purchased an Embrace and it saved my life.

“The Embrace has given me the confidence to start being active again”

I purchased the Embrace mostly because my seizures have all happened during my sleep. I also purchased it so that I could regain a lot of the confidence that I lost once I was diagnosed with Epilepsy. On November 6th, 2016, I had a seizure(s) that lasted over 40 minutes. The Embrace detected the seizures and my emergency contacts were notified.

My mom found me on my bed with a blanket around my neck. I was unresponsive, frothing at the mouth, my lips were blue, and I had stopped breathing. The seizure(s) were so bad that the paramedics had to use several rescue medications to bring me out of the seizure.

I was so heavily sedated that the ambulance had to make a stop on the way to the hospital to intubate me because I wasn’t able to breathe on my own. I was in the hospital for a total of 4 days with 3 of those days being in ICU.

I believe the Embrace saved my life. It helps give peace of mind to me, as well as my friends and family. Having the Embrace has also helped me regain the confidence to start being active again.

Some days it’s hard and I have to force myself to exercise, but then some days it is very easy. The medications I take can make me very tired, but I am learning to overcome that issue and make myself more active again.

Her Dreams and Hopes

“I dream and hope that I never have a seizure again… and that the Embrace helps/saves lives like it did mine.”

I hope that I will be able to drive again. That was a huge privilege that was taken away from me. I have to be seizure free for 6 months before I am able to drive again, and every time I have a tonic-clonic seizure, that 6 months starts back over.

My dreams would be to continue to live a healthy lifestyle and regain all confidence that I lost when I was diagnosed with Epilepsy. I dream and hope that I never have a seizure again. I also dream of a cure for all seizure disorders, as well as more awareness for seizure disorders, which are very underfunded.

I hope the Embrace helps/saves lives like it did mine. It was and will probably always be the best purchase I’ve ever made. I would definitely recommend the Embrace to people with Epilepsy or any type of seizure disorder. I strongly believe it saved my life, and I know it could help other people, as well.

More Embrace Stories will be published soon! To share yours, feel free to write to us at support@empatica.com or post your story on Facebook or Instagram by tagging our page (respectively @Empatica on FB, @empatica_wearables on IG) or the hashtag #EmbraceWatch.