His “grand mal” seizure lasted for 90 minutes until he was put into a drug-induced coma.

Almost 12 months later, after 23 additional seizures, Cooper was finally diagnosed with epilepsy.

Even though the four-year-old Gloucester boy has been put on medication, he is far from seizure free, with an average of five to six seizures a months, ranging from grand mal, petit mal and partial.

“We are two weeks seizure-free at the moment,” Cooper’s mother, Trudie Symens, said.

“The most we have ever gone is six weeks.”

Current treatment for Cooper is to keep increasing the medication dose until he starts to show signs of side effects.

“The risk of increasing the dose is it can cause his body to go into toxic shock,” Trudie said.

She explained with the medication it is trial and error, trying to find the right combination. There is an opportunity for Cooper to try a new option, but there is the possibility that he could go into a prolonged seizure requiring medical intervention.

Trudie said Cooper’s seizures manifest in several different ways. Sometimes he might scream or kick and it looks like he is having a tantrum. “The trick is to know the difference.”

With March 26 being Purple Day, Trudie and Cooper are looking to raise awareness, so people understand more about the condition.

“As an epilepsy mum, you need to be their voice, but you don’t want to put restrictions on them. You want them to live a normal life.”

So far, Cooper doesn’t have any permanent brain damage, but with epilepsy there are so many unknown factors and any seizure could be fatal.

“With a seizure the brain goes offline and it needs to reboot,” Trudie explained. “And if any of the organs don’t come back online, it can lead to death.”

For now, Trudie prepares to send Cooper to big school next year. She’ll be working with Epilepsy Action to provide training at the school, so the teachers are able to manage his seizures. She’s nervous, but knows her best action is to make the school aware.