Actress Fatima Sana Shaikh began having seizures as she was travelling on a flight. She was taken quickly to the airport’s medical centre before being taken to a hospital, where she spent the next two days. According to Shaikh, she experienced five clusters of seizures when she was alone and without a caregiver. “It kept my work and life on hold. For me this was a big jhatka, I really thought I’m lucky that I survived. I’ve had big episodes in the past, but this was the most difficult as I was all alone. Now I cannot travel alone, I need someone with me,” Shaikh shares.

Shaikh’s “serious” incident caused her to discuss her neurological disease epilepsy on social media for the first time, which was timed to coincide with the ongoing National Epilepsy Awareness Month (NEAM). “I’ve not hidden it, but kabhi mauka nahi mila. I took some time to understand what it was. There’s so much stigma attached. You think log sochenge that you have an ailment. I didn’t want people to think I’m weak. I was scared that if I tell people that I have this then I will not get work. I, also, didn’t want to accept that I have a neurological condition,” she explains in details.

Shaikh’s last episode caused the producers of Meghna Gulzar’s Sam Bahadur, in which she stars, to cancel two days of filming. She states, “I realised as a person who is going through this,it’s my responsibility to tell my producers that you have a person who has this condition. I have had seizures on set and people have taken care of it. I give them a certain protocol to follow.”

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