Seizure Emergency SafeSteps Platform - SafeSteps Pillbox

What is this?

This pillbox is intended for those who have seizures or those that care for them. 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. This model was designed by Emilia Cabaero as a part of the SafeSteps Platform. 

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 is an STL file is the English model with the emergency number 911 that you can download and print from Prusa.  There are additional STL files being added for other languages and emergency numbers. To change the language or the phone number manually, use the OpenSCAD file. The pillbox should be printed in PURPLE, the official color for supporting epilepsy. 

In Prusa, the model can be cut to print just the lid or just the box one at a time. Or, they can be printed together. I suggest using an outer and inner BRIM when printing; in my experience this prevents the box from warping or shifting on the plate in the middle of printing. The pillbox should be printed using PETG filament, which is more heat stable than PLA and has lower porosity, making it more resistant to bacterial growth. 

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. Then, with the help of 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, poor printing parameters, too big, too small, etc. What you are getting here is the result of many improvments.

Tell me more about SafeSteps:

Go to this link.