Another seizure for Kill

[OH HSKR FAN]

Is it time for him to retire?

[NUance]

The guy is actually a great coach. Well, great at every aspect except gameday sidelines. I wonder if he would relinquish the sidelines to his coordinators, and coach the game from the booth. Or maybe that wouldn't help, I dunno.

 

edit: I guess his seizure wasn't on the sidelines. So it's a worse problem than I thought. Really too bad. The guy is a talented coach.

[Excel]

I can't even count how many of these he's had now. I may hate Minnesota but I genuinely feel bad for this guy.

 

If he has all these seizures on game days, where we can see them, it makes you wonder how many he has during the week and off season that we don't know about. Is it the stress of the game or is just a part of life for him?

[Michiganball]

I can't even count how many of these he's had now. I may hate Minnesota but I genuinely feel bad for this guy.

 

If he has all these seizures on game days, where we can see them, it makes you wonder how many he has during the week and off season that we don't know about. Is it the stress of the game or is just a part of life for him?

 

Stress no doubt adds to their likelihood considerably. It has to be very difficult and frustrating for a qualified and hard working guy to have these things happen and having little control over them. He likely knows he's limit and I have a bad feeling he's reaching it.

[Hooked on Huskers]

My closest friend suffered an epilepsy thing (I was 10 to 14 years old at the time). Violent seizures time to time....no pre-warning. He was an athlete kid, any sports, little league all star and MVP, etc. Plus, he was a happy go lucky kid, popular, no stress at all.

 

All the time he was wearing a necklace hanging a wooden shoehorn shape.....protect biting for his teeth (tongue). After his 15 to 30 seconds attack, he was back to normal, no trace at all, 100% healthy and strength. Weird huh?

 

You know Glover Cleveland Alexander (pitcher) suffered an epilepsy attack during his MLB games? Numerous times. BTW, he was born in Elba Nebraska and died at St. Paul Nebraska.

 

"Grover Cleveland Alexander wasn't drunk out there on the mound, the way people thought. He was an epileptic. Old Pete would fall down with a seizure between innings, then go back and pitch another shutout." -Ty Cobb ("Cobb", by Al Stump)

Exactly the same symptoms as my old friend, Alexander and probably coach Kill. I think stress and epilepsy/seizure attacks are not related. Kinda like sneeze attack but more intense.

[Coqui]

5 on Gameday since 2011.

 

At some point health/family > football job

[Mavric]

Is there any cumulative effect? Does having more threaten your health? Or are they just something that shows up from time to time?

[Coqui]

Is there any cumulative effect? Does having more threaten your health? Or are they just something that shows up from time to time?

 

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1783429/

[Excel]

Is there any cumulative effect? Does having more threaten your health? Or are they just something that shows up from time to time?

 

http://www.ncbi.nlm....les/PMC1783429/

 

From the link: Our findings, together with those from animal studies and surgically treated patients, suggest that seizures can have a direct adverse effect on cognition...Thompson and Duncan found a particularly strong relationship between cognitive decline and the frequency of generalized tonic–clonic seizure. Even frequent complex partial seizures, however, were associated with worsening scores in tests of verbal learning, delayed recall, and semantic fluency...All in all, the study adds to the evidence that in patients with intractable epilepsy, repeated seizures of any type—and not only tonic–clonic ones—may pose a serious risk to quality of life and also may take a long-term toll on intellectual function.

 

 

So to Mavric's questions:

1. Is there any cumulative effect? Yes and no. It's not like having 50 means you'll die but the more you have the worse things get.

2. Yes, having more is bad for a person's health.

3. Show up from time-to-time? I don't know about that one. I'm guessing Kill gets them often and we just hear about a few of them but maybe not. One would think that stress could bring these things on for some people but I'm not sure, anyone have any research?

 

Like hooked, I've known two epileptics in my life, both when I was a kid/teenager in school. Both seemed to have seizures at random and though I haven't kept in touch with either of them I'm pretty sure they grew out of it or at least had them far less often.

[Mavric]

Thanks for the info. The obvious follow-up question was mentioned by Bucky: is there something about game day that provokes them? If there is, I would think he's have some thinking to do. If there isn't a correlation, he might as well keep doing what he loves.

[tmfr15]

JK would prob be best served looking into consultant work. Being a game day sideline coach doesn't seem to be an option. At this point, the team can't count on him to be there. And isn't that the ultimate qualification for any job... being available. I feel for the guy but I think in most lines of work that kind of condition would lead to a termination of the employment contract.

[Walleye Hunting Husker]

I was diagnosed with juvenile myoclonic epilepsy when I was fourteen. With my seizures I am able to tell when they are coming with what is called an aura. While my condition is luckily contained with medication it isn't something that can be taken lightly. I have to watch my weight, my sleep and my stress levels because at anytime it can happen. In college I played football and during two early morning workouts I had seizures which I almost broke a team mates foot with a plate and another moring I was doing squats and could have really hurt myself if I had fallen to the left or right. Luckily all that happened to me was I brusied my back pretty bad.

I personally know what Kill is going threw and I feel bad for the guy but at some point his health has to take proirity over his head coaching job. I'm nopt saying he has to retire right this second but he has to deligate some of his minor responsibilities to other on his staff so that he can montior his health more closely.

[Flood]

I feel really bad for Coach Kill. He is the best thing to happen to that team in a long time.

 

He is a great coach.

 

But I also can't help but worry: Will we one day witness the ultimate tragedy, the end of a man's life, live on TV. Or the event that leads to his death, starting on the sidelines, only to find out he passed away at the hospital?

 

Is he married? Kids? At some point it becomes irresponsible to his family to continue this, if these attacks are brought on by stressful situations, like the sideline of a football game.

 

What an unfortunate situation for everyone there.

[Flood]

Coach Kill and Minnesota have announced that he is taking an indefinite amount of time off to work on his health:

 

http://www.gophersports.com/sports/m-footbl/spec-rel/101013aaa.html

 

Glad (and sad) to hear it. I hope it goes well and he returns healthy and ready to coach.

[everybody knows my name]

Coach Kill isn't going to die on the sideline from a seizure. That isn't how epilepsy works. I'm surprised to see someone write such a thing on this board.

 

It's good that he's taking some time off. Hopefully if he devotes himself to cooperating with his specialist and getting his medication right so he can be seizure-free. He really is a fantastic coach, and the team is getting better.