{description}A mother holds her child’s shoulder helplessly as he shakes uncontrollably on the grass. The child is in Status Epilepticus—his brain’s neurons are generating a storm of electrical signals, causing a prolonged seizure that will not stop without medical intervention. The ambulance arrives, and the paramedics administer medicine that quells the seizure. Although long-lasting seizures are often fatal, this child’s life is saved. Seizures arise from disturbances to the electrical connectivity or activity of the brain, which arise from a variety of factors including epilepsy, drugs, tumors, stroke, and injury. Regardless of the cause, the shorter a seizure lasts, the better a person’s chances for recovery. “You want to stop a seizure as soon as you can,” says James Quinn, MD, Associate Professor and Research Director in Emergency Medicine at Stanford Medical School. “Paramedics now stop them with medications in the field, but there’s a big variation in practice about what medications to use.”{/description}