What Is a Seizure Singer Zubeen Garg Suffered While Swimming in Singapore—When Can They Turn Fatal?

Renowned Assamese singer Zubeen Garg passed away in Singapore after suffering a seizure while swimming at Lazarus Island, his wife, Garima Saikia Garg confirmed, as per news reports. “Zubeen, along with seven or eight others, including drummer Shekhar and Sidhartha, went to the island on a yacht. They swam together and returned to the shore on the yacht. All of them were wearing life jackets. But Zubeen went to swim again and suffered a seizure attack, Garima was quoted by the Times of India. “He suffered seizure attacks on several occasions earlier but escaped death. Other team members rescued him after seeing something unusual. He was kept in the ICU at Singapore General Hospital for about two hours,” she added. Zubeen breathed his last at 2.50

am (IST) at the age of 52.

What is a seizure?

A seizure is a sudden, temporary surge of excessive electrical activity in the brain that disrupts normal brain function, causing changes in behaviour, movement, sensation, or consciousness. According to doctors, while all seizures may not look the same, in some, you may stop what you are doing and stare off into space for a few seconds-- others may make you jerk your arm or feel your muscles twitch. You might only have one seizure in your life or have multiple seizures per day. There are many possible causes of seizures since many things interfere with your brain’s typical electrical patterns – ranging from changes to your blood sugar levels to an illness, injury, or even an underlying condition. Experts say up to 10 per cent of people around the world will have at least one seizure during their lifetimes.

Types of seizures

Generalized seizures

In this, the electrical activity begins on both sides of your brain at the same time, which leads to constant shaking or only staring and stops what you are doing. Doctors say usually these affect children or young adults, but it can occur at any age.

Focal seizures

In this, electrical activity begins on one side of your brain with symptoms affecting one side of your body. While you may not remember the seizure, experts believe focal seizures stay focal and spread to both sides.

Signs and symptoms of a seizure

Symptoms of a seizure vary based on the type and severity but may include:

• Loss of consciousness
• Uncontrollable movements like convulsions, muscle spasms and jerking
• Staring

A few other symptoms may include:

• Sudden emotional changes, which include confusion, fear, joy, and anxiety
• Teeth clenching
• Drooling
• Abnormal eye movements
• Loss of bladder or bowel control
• Noisemaking

What causes a seizure?

Doctors say usually, a surge of electrical activity in your brain can cause a seizure. Neurons or nerve cells, communicate in your brain by sending electrical signals to different parts of your brain. And so, when a seizure happens, the affected brain cells fire signals uncontrollably to others around them, leading to an electrical activity which overloads the affected areas of your brain. Seizure causes fall into two main categories, depending on why they happen:

• Provoked seizures, which are nonepileptic and can be triggered due to a temporary condition.
• Unprovoked seizures, which are epileptic and happen spontaneously.