A family member reports that your unresponsive patient stopped seizing 2 minutes prior to your arrival but has not regained consciousness. He begins to seize again during assessment. What is the best term to describe your patient's condition?

The patient's condition can best be described as status epilepticus. This term refers to a situation where an individual has a prolonged seizure lasting more than five minutes or experiences multiple seizures without regaining consciousness in between. In this case, the patient stopped seizing only 2 minutes before the EMT's arrival but has not regained consciousness, and seizures have resumed during the assessment. This prolonged or recurrent seizure activity, without recovery, qualifies the situation as status epilepticus.

The other terms do not apply in the same way. "Petit mal" refers to a type of generalized seizure that typically lasts only a few seconds and involves a brief loss of consciousness without convulsions. "Grand mal," an older term, is now referred to as tonic-clonic seizures, which involve both tonic (stiffening) and clonic (rhythmic jerking) phases. While the patient could be having a tonic-clonic seizure, the overarching condition—characterized by the sequence and timing of seizures—places him in the category of status epilepticus. Thus, the terminology used accurately reflects the critical nature and urgency of the patient’s medical situation.