An Oklahoma mom’s little boy died suddenly in January 2023 of an unexpected cause. Lindsay Miller took her son, Mason, to the hospital in December 2022 because he exhibited signs of an illness. The flu, RSV, and COVID-19 were going around, and she wanted to be safe rather than sorry. While at the hospital, Mason experienced a febrile seizure that terrified his mom.
But doctors allegedly assured Lindsay Miller that febrile seizures are normal for children and that everything would be fine. A few weeks later, Mason died. Now, the heartbroken mom wants to warn other parents to prevent the same heartache of losing a child.
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Mason reportedly had typical symptoms.
Miller told People that when she took Mason to the ER, his breathing was labored and his body felt warm.
“It was just normal symptoms. He was warm and he could tell he didn’t feel good, but there was nothing really serious,” she explained. “We went up to the hospital and they did all the tests and everything looked good, and they just said he had a double ear infection, we were prescribed antibiotics and we were discharged.”
She posted a video of the evening on TikTok that is heartbreaking to watch knowing what happened next.
Moments later, everything changed.
Miller told People as they were walking out of the hospital, she glanced down at Mason’s stroller, and he was seizing and turning purple. She ran him back to the ER, terrified and desperate for help.
The doctor allegedly asked, “‘What was he here for?’ And I said, ‘He was here for a fever and we thought he was sick.’ And they’re like, ‘Oh, OK. It’s OK. It’s probably just a febrile seizure. Those are pretty common in children his age.'”
Mason stayed in the ER for monitoring and was discharged a few hours later with instructions to follow up with his regular pediatrician.
Life went on as usual for the next month, but something suddenly changed.
Miller told People the day Mason died started like any other day. He was fine and playing as he normally did. The family had no history of febrile seizures, and she wasn’t monitoring for anything strange. At the end of the day, she put Mason to bed but decided to check on him later in the evening.
“I went in to check on him a second time and it was dark and I shined my light on him and I thought to myself, there’s no way he’s not breathing,” she remembered. “And then I moved the light to his face and he was face down in his bed and had gotten sick, he had vomited.”
The family called 911, and Mason was rushed to the hospital.
Miller said her husband, Jeremy, knew their son was dead, but she didn’t want to believe it and continued CPR until emergency personnel arrived at their home. Sadly, doctors in the ER allegedly told the terrified mother there was nothing they could do and that the family needed to make the call to end CPR efforts.
The family stayed at the hospital, answering questions about medical history and allergies, but Miller alleged no one told her anything.
“No one had told us at the hospital that when he arrived, he had a fever. No one told us anything. I kept saying to them, ‘He wasn’t sick, there was nothing wrong with him. I just put him to bed. I don’t understand,'” she said, per People. “And they kept saying, ‘We’re just going to have to wait until the autopsy and the investigation.’ No one told us he had a fever. If they would’ve told me that I would’ve maybe put two and two together that this was related to febrile seizure again.”
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Five months later, the Millers learned Mason's cause of death.
The parents spent several months agonizing over how their toddler suddenly died. The medical examiner’s officer reportedly stated the cause of death as “complications of presumed febrile seizure,” Miller told People.
“We felt devastated at the results,” she said. “It was heartbreaking and left us with many unanswered questions. We were told this kind of seizure was benign and he would grow out of them eventually. We started doing our own research and found studies regarding febrile seizures in relation to sudden unexplained death in childhood. This led us to the SUDC foundation and they have played a huge role in our grief journey moving forward since Mason’s death.”
Miller was cautious in telling her story.
She told People that febrile seizures are, in fact, common, and what happened to Mason is unusual. Still, she felt it was important to speak up.
“If I could do anything different, I may have tried to do increased monitoring on my son after his first seizure. I just didn’t know. I had never heard of anything like this,” she adds. “If I had seen a video like that on TikTok, it may have made me think about different types of monitors you can use on a child. If I could help save any child’s life so they didn’t have to experience this, that would be great.”
Miller and her husband are the parents of a teenage daughter and are expecting a baby in January.
