On another occasion it had happened in Sacrament during the last speaker’s talk. The member of the bishopric, directed someone to call 911, had the teachers go to their classes, dismissed everyone to go to their classes and dismissed us without closing song and prayer.

I agree with JM.. had I been the one speaking when all this was going on I would have known no one was even listening to me and I would have just sat down. There are many many Sundays I have to get up during Sacrament meetings which is why I always sit in the back row so I am not disturbing anyone else when I get up to move. If I had a medical problem or illness such as regular seizures, I would not expect my bishopric to stop procedures either but I would make sure that my seizures were not disturbing those all around me if I sat in the front of the chapel for example.

Obviously a doctor in the ER would not be expected to give a blessing to someone in his care rather then attending to the physical needs of the moment, but I would expect any other priesthood holder there to be attending to the spiritual needs of the person. Especially if I was unable to speak such as in the middle of unconsciousness or seizure etc.

In another ward in Sask when we were there, a member had a heart attack and another nurse and I started CPR on him. We got him down on a pew and started. The bishopric again dismissed everyone to classes instead of turning the Sacrament meeting into a sideshow gawking and crowding around. It also is very scary to children to see someone “pounding” on someone else’s chest and “kissing” that person when they don’t understand CPR.

This happened in our ward about a year ago. A young boy collapsed, his mother carried him out to the lobby, a doctor in the ward accompanied them and no more was heard. The doctor returned to his seat before the end of sacrament, which indicated to everyone that things were OK (or perhaps markedly not so, but that’s awfully pessimistic- it turns out everything turned out ok).

The Bishop, or member of the SP in this case, did the correct thing in this case, IMHO. The situation seemed to be well in hand by the surrounding members, and nothing would have been served to stop the talk or intervene in any other way. It just would have disrupted the ward more.

I have a sister-in-law who has grand-mal seizures (1-3 a day) and these sometimes happen in church activities including sacrament meeting. If the Bishop were to stop proceedings when this happened everytime that would be grossly inappropriate.

Regarding the blessing, that’s completely up to any holder of the Priesthood’s discretion. A doctor in an emergency room who is a holder of the Priesthood could hardly be expected to stop therapeutic intervention and give a blessing, right?

How do you suggest it could have been done differently? Of course, some more information on the nature of the medical emergency could probably shed some more light on the subject…..

We were a couple of rows back in the over flow area, about 7 rows away.

We stayed out of the way. When the paramedics arrived, I took my family out into the hall.

From the responses so far, it seems like this isn’t an uncommon occurance. Does anyone know if there is anything in the Church Handbook of Instructions regarding what to do in such a situation?

We remained in the Cultural hall, and SP counselor let us know what had happened after the EMTs left.

Seemed like a good way to do it. More than a few people helping would be a distraction, and clearing out people was the best way to resolve it.

Everything turned out fine, but many more people would have just gotten in the way. We ended up having nothing but support (two ward members went with us to the hospital, another bishopric member brought us water and snacks later that afternoon at the hospital–probably the most thoughtful thing that I would never have thought of–and another ward member brought us dinner that night). From my point of view, we got the help we needed from the people who needed to help, and disrupting the rest of the meeting would have only gotten in my daughter’s way at best.

Of course, YMMV.