Samantha
Samantha received a diagnosis of epilepsy in December 2008 and died six months later aged 19 during an epileptic seizure. Samantha had just eight epileptic seizures.
Her parents Linda and Bill were under the impression that epilepsy would not kill her and Samantha made a decision that having epilepsy was not going to ruin her life.
Samantha was a caring and happy young lady and a wonderful daughter, sister and friend. Everyone loved her smile and enthusiasm for life. She loved swimming and socialising with her friends. She had swum with dolphins and tried scuba diving. Her ambition was to become a social worker.
She was so excited when she passed her driving test and got a car aged 18 but this was short lived when she had to return her licence after her second seizure.
At the time of her death Samantha had just completed her ‘A’ levels, returned from a holiday with her parents and younger siblings and was 36 hours away from flying to Tenerife with her friend to celebrate the finishing of their studies. She was so excited and had much to look forward to.
Linda and Bill were with their daughter Samantha when she died.
Linda said: “We will never forget that fatal night when Samantha fell down the last few steps of our staircase whilst having a seizure. I heard a thud, went to her and reassured her through her seizure but something didn’t seem right.
One minute Samantha was fitting the next minute everything just stopped. We were worried and scared and we knew something wasn’t right. The only way that I can explain is – it was like a light bulb switching off. There was just stillness and peace as I held her in my arms. The paramedics came quickly and tried for an hour to resuscitate her, to no avail.
If it wasn’t for the fall down the stairs we would never have heard Samantha having a seizure, as it wasn’t as vigorous as usual. The seizure just stopped midway. We now feel that was because it was meant to be the last. Even though we were with Samantha nothing could be done to keep her alive.
Everything pointed to head or internal injuries as the cause of death. But the post mortem revealed that there was no head trauma or any sign of internal injuries that could have caused her death.
Samantha left her brother Adam, whose 16th birthday was the morning we left Samantha for the last time at the hospital and also her sister Alice who at the time was just 23 months old. She loved them both so much and had been out that day to buy them both their birthday presents which we had to give them on her behalf.
A couple of weeks after Samantha’s death I saw an article in our local newspaper about a fundraising event in memory of a person with epilepsy who died from SUDEP. At the end of the article was Epilepsy Bereaved’s bereavement support number and I called it. Later we were told Samantha died from SUDEP.
If it wasn’t for Epilepsy Bereaved we don’t know how we would have got this far. They have been our rock. They are there at the other end of the phone when we need to talk.
We attended Epilepsy Bereaved’s national meeting and found it comforting to meet others who have gone through what we are still going through. We have also raised over £12,000 for Epilepsy Bereaved in memory of Samantha. The fundraising has helped us keep her memory alive. We know that Samantha would be so thrilled to know that there is hope for others and her life was not in vain.
We are so proud to have had Samantha for 19 years but feel cheated that we couldn’t have had her for longer. Our hearts will ache for the rest of our lives, but we will be strong and carry on for Adam and Alice. ”
Samantha’s ‘A’ level results came through after her death. She had achieved all the grades she needed to take up her offer of a place at Huddersfield University to study Social Work.
