A son saved his mother's life by using AI to look up why she was having seizures.
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she → save → seizures
Edward Patrick was woken by a phone call from a doctor at 4am telling him to get to his mother Ann's bedside because she was close to death.
Rushing to his car with his wife Jo, and their three-month-old baby, Lily, he drove straight to Queen's Medical Centre in Nottingham from their home in Oxfordshire.
On the drive to hospital, Edward's brother texted him telling him an internet search had suggested that a vitamin deficiency could be the cause of her seizures.
Edward, who works as an NHS anaesthetist, put the thought to one side as he braced himself for the worst and prepared to say his final goodbye to his mum this May.
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he → wake → mum
But when he arrived at the hospital, he decided to use his phone to search Ann's symptoms.
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he → arrive → symptoms
He realised a B6 vitamin deficiency linked to her Parkinson's medication could be causing her seizures as his brother had suggested.
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brother → realise → seizures
Speaking to The Sunday Times, Edward said: 'Every time I tell the story, I feel like, am I making this up?
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I → speak → this
Edward Patrick is pictured with his mother, Ann, who has Parkinson's Disease, and his father, John
'To come from the jaws of death.
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who → picture → death
She only had hours.'
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She → have → hours
Understandably Edward recalled feeling conflicted about whether to be the worried son or the calm medical professional at the hospital.
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Edward → recall → hospital
On the ward the scene which greeted him was a dismaying one.
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which → greet → him
Ann was experiencing rhabdomyolysis, a condition caused by seizures which leads to muscle tissue collapsing and mixing into the bloodstream.
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tissue → experience → bloodstream
'I wondered what I was going to do when I got there and how I was going to be, and which part of me would come out,' he said.
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he → wonder → me
Edward shared his findings with the on-duty neurologist Dr Bruno Gran.
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Edward → share → neurologist
'I thought he was going to be like, 'Calm down, sit down, have a cup of tea,' but he just said, 'Thank you for looking into it.''
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he → think → it
When his mum got her B6 infusion, Edward said he felt like he had a 'House moment', referring to the programme's gifted doctor played by actor Hugh Laurie.
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he → get → Laurie
Mr Patrick drove straight to Queen's Medical Centre in Nottingham from his family home in Oxfordshire (file image)
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Patrick → drive → Oxfordshire
'There's no other way of describing it,' he added.
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he → be → it
Ann, who is in her late seventies, is now getting better and has not been back to hospital since.
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who → get → hospital
According to her son she seems sharper mentally.
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she → accord → son
Edward remembered in August, while he was at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, how she caught him out when he was trying to multitask.
'
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he → remember → him
I started doing something else while I was on the phone to her, and she just went, 'Are you doing something?
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you → start → something
It sounds like you're not listening to me.'
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you → sound → me
Ann lives with her husband, John, a former engineer, and has six grandchildren.
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Ann → live → grandchildren
She said: 'I'm really glad I cannot remember a thing about it.
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I → say → it
'Since then, I just can't get over that such a small thing can make such a large difference to whether you live or die.
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you → get → difference
There are roughly 166,000 people in the UK with Parkinson's which damages the nervous system.
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which → be → system
Symptoms can develop slowly and include shaking of the hands, slowness of movement, balance problems and muscle stiffness.
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Symptoms → develop → movement
Thanks to Edward's quick thinking, a case file on his actions and his mother is being prepared for the medical journal of Neurology to see if anything can be learnt.
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anything → prepare → Neurology
Rachel Hughes, a preclinical research manager at the charity Cure Parkinson's, said the case 'provides encouraging results' but stressed 'further research will be essential to establish whether this approach could translate into a safe and effective treatment.'
She added patients should not change their prescribed treatments or begin to take vitamin B6 supplements without their doctor's agreement.
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patients → say → agreement
The Aporia
