Yeah it’s real - people can have a seizure despite having no prior symptoms, and a scan won’t be able to tell you they’ve had one unless they had it inside the MRI scanner. Unfortunately that’s what makes it a plausible get-out-of-jail-free card for causing death by dangerous/distracted driving.
Comment on Wimbledon school crash: Woman rearrested over deaths of two girls
breadsmasher@lemmy.world 2 days ago
At the time, her solicitor said her epilepsy had “never previously manifested itself” and Ms Freemantle “had always enjoyed good health”.
Is this a real thing? Having symptomless epilepsy?
cook_pass_babtridge@feddit.uk 2 days ago
southsamurai@sh.itjust.works 2 days ago
If it had never manifested, there wouldn’t have been a diagnosis. Bad wording for sure.
steeznson@lemmy.world 1 day ago
My brother-in-law has a slightly unusual form of epilepsy called absence seizures where he zones out and ceases to function for almost a minute at a time. It’s the exact opposite of what you’d want for a driver.
However he’s been on medication to treat it and hasn’t had an abscence seizure in over 10 years with his current medication. He lives in Cornwall and some of the council houses he is being offered are perfect but have problems like the nearest pharmacy being 20 miles away and buses being every 3 hours. Out of curiousity we checked to see if he could learn to drive and apparently if you’ve not had a seizure for 2 years then you can get rubberstamped for a provisional drivers license.
Ultimately he’s turning down these places due to these issues, it’s not being counted as a wasted bid since the drawbacks of the property are not just him being fussy. Additionally, I’m pretty certain he lacks the gross motor skills to drive even if seizures are no longer a problem. Will need to wait to bid on more suitable properties. People who live in the country really need better amenities and public transport.
At any rate that 2 year figure struck me as being very, uh, optimistic from the DVLA. Potentially any seizure should seriously curtail your ability to gain a provisional/full license.