How many deaths a year from epilepsy?

Answer 1

Epilepsy CAN be fatal although many sufferers take medication and live a relatively normal life. Status Epilepticus is life threatening. This is where a seizure continues for more than 5 minutes or a person does not regain consciousness between seizures. Many people die from this and it requires immediate emergency treatment. Seizures can cause breathing difficulties or head injuries from a fall. Drowing is a big risk for seizure sufferers.

Epilepsy is not a fatal condition. People who have Epilepsy and die, rarely die because of their epilepsy. If someone has a seizure while doing some dangerous activity, they may have an accident and die as a result of that, but it would not be the epilepsy itself that kills them. The vast majority of people who have epilepsy lead very normal lives and when they die, it is for some other reason.

There is a condition known as SUDEP - Sudden Unexplained Death from Epilepsy. It even has an official name. A few different Epileptic conditions (Dravet's Syndrom comes to mind) reduce a person's life expectancy to not likely to live past 5. This is largely because NO ONE KNOWS what causes it and how to cure it. However this is a small minority of the people who have epilepsy, and do live relatively normal lives outside of their actual seizures.

Some places for reference are linked to below:

Answer 2

Approx. 40,000 people die each year from epilepsy

Answer 3

The number of people dieing in the U.S.A are very few as they take good care there. Mainly people die in rural area due to lack of drugs.

Answer 4

Approximately 1 in 1,000 epileptics die each year from SUDEP: "the sudden, unexpected death of someone with epilepsy"

Complete information about epilepsy can be found at Epilepsy Foundation website.