Seizure Emergency SafeSteps Platform - SafeSteps T (multilingual)

The Seizure Emergency SafeSteps Platform - SafeSteps T (for tactile).

Brought to by the Epilepsy + Data Science Lab

What is this?

This keychain is intended for those who care for someone with seizures. It provides 4 quick reminder messages for what to do at the time of a seizure: 1) nothing in mouth, 2) 5 minutes? call 911 (or country specific code) 3) protect the head 4) lay down on side. 

Why are these messages important?

1. NOTHING IN MOUTH.There is a myth that you can swallow your tongue and die during a seizure, and therefore people should put something into your mouth to save you. In fact, our lab published a study about this (read paper). This is a foolish myth without factual basis. Indeed, many people do put things into the mouth of people having seizures, and then the patient gets hurt (like breaking a tooth) or swallows something that they might choke on. Putting something in the mouth only ADDS danger. Never do it.

2. 5 MINUTES? CALL 911. Seizures that last longer than 5 minutes are likely to cause brain damage. Time is brain. Most seizure last less than 2 minutes, so if a patient is still convulsing after 5 minutes, they are having a life threatening emergency, and there is no time to do anything except call an ambulance, who likely have life-saving medicine onboard.

3. PROTECT THE HEAD. Patients that have seizures can injury their head. It is easy to move things away from them, cover sharp things with pillows, blankets, clothing or other soft objects.

4. LAY DOWN ON SIDE. Patients sometimes can vomit during or after a seizure. If this happens, they should vomit OUT of their body, rather than IN to their lungs, which can cause aspiration pneumonia.

How should I print this?

There are a number of models available here. The STL files all come as part1 and part2 - the former is the body, the latter is the text. If you open both at the same time in your slicer, they will align correctly. Part 1 should be printed in PURPLE, the official color for supporting epilepsy, and Part 2 should be printed in WHITE, to make sure you have high contrast.

Also note: these keychains will be used in hot places (such as left in the car on a hot day). PETG is much more heat stable than PLA - it is recommended to use PETG for SafeSteps.

You will also notice that some of the files have the word “vertical” in them. These are designed to print vertically, which on normal bedslinger printers will result in MUCH slower print times, however they are likely to come out looking better. Be sure to use a BRIM for those. Those models will have tactile letters on all 4 sides. The non-vertical files are for printing horizontally on the print bed. These print MUCH faster, however one of the faces have text that is flat, and depending on your printer, this may or may not look good.

In my experience, the vertical prints take much longer, but can print at 0.2mm height and come out looking the best. The horizontal prints can print faster, but should be printed with 0.15mm layer height.

Supports are not needed for any of them.

What about my country (for English)?

Depending on your country, you will want a different emergency phone number listed. Files are listed with the telephone number being used.

*Countries repeat across rows when they officially support more than one ambulance code.

**Codes like 112 or 911 that redirect to a primary number (e.g., 111 in New Zealand) are only shown when an official source confirms they function in parallel for ambulance dispatch.

What about other languages?

Additional languages have not yet been medically verified, however, we have experimental versions for a large set of languages based on AI translation. These languages are supposedly sufficient to cover 6.6 billion people according to AI as they they are the top languages spoken in the world. Given that this is unverified, take that fact with a grain of salt. Languages covered so far:  "English", "Mandarin Chinese", "Hindi", "Spanish", "Modern Standard Arabic", "French", "Bengali", "Portuguese", "Russian", "Indonesian", "Urdu", "German", "Japanese", "Nigerian Pidgin", "Egyptian Arabic", "Marathi", "Vietnamese", "Telugu", "Hausa", "Turkish", and “Hebrew”. If you happen to be medically trained for epilepsy and are a native speaker of any of these outside English, please let us know if our AI translations are culturally appropriate and medically correct so that we can update which languages have been verified thus far.

Verified languages to date: 

• English.

How can I customize these further?

If you want to build your own customized SafeSteps models, you can use the OpenSCAD file (.scad) to change the 4 messages, change sizes, etc.

How was this made?

Many versions were made. Initially it was made with TinkerCAD. Later Fusion360. It was visualized using VR tools from GravitySketch. Then, with the help of multiple AI tools including OpenAI and Anthropic and Google AI tools, an OpenSCAD file was made, and then modified (by hand). Numerous versions were made and they failed for various reasons - bad text, poor readability, weak keychain link, poor printing parameters, too big, not comfortable, etc. What you are getting here is the result of nearly 4 years of incremental improvments.

Tell me more about SafeSteps:

Go to this link.

Lab motto: RELENTLESS INCREMENTAL IMPROVEMENT