Busy Philipps Shares Scary Story of Watching Daughter Birdie Have a Seizure on FaceTime

Busy Philipps recently had a call no parent wants. The 44-year-old actress and mother of two spoke about a recent scary situation involving her 15-year-old daughter, Birdie, on her podcast, Busy Philipps Is Doing Her Best. 

Philipps shared that she heard her estranged husband, Marc Silverstein, "screaming for me" in their shared home. 

"I heard his voice and I knew something was really wrong," the Freaks and Geeks star recalled. "He just said, 'It's Birdie, it's Birdie. She's having another seizure. The paramedics are on the phone.'"

Philipps was very emotional discussing the "terrifying" scenario, even saying she wasn't sure she'd be able to discuss the seizure. 

Noting, "she's OK," Philipps revealed that she saw the whole thing unfold over FaceTime. 

Birdie was at boarding school in Sweden when the seizure happened. 

"The paramedics were on FaceTime, and she had just come out of the seizure and she was still in the post-aura state. They were hooking her up with stuff and on FaceTime," Philipps said. "It was terrifying to see how she was… You could see everything that was happening so it was just weird. She was reaching toward the camera and just calling out for me, just saying, 'Mama, Mama, where are you? Mama.' And it was chaotic and the paramedics were talking to us the whole time and asking us questions." 

She said that Birdie and a friend were at a movie when she began "choking and throwing up" from the seizure. 

"It was really awful seeing it on a screen and being in a different country across an ocean," Philipps said of the experience. 

She, Marc, and their daughter, Cricket, all flew to Sweden to be with Birdie and eventually bring her back home. 

"She was super sore, so sore, her body was in so much pain," Philipps said of her daughter after the seizure. "She had such a terrible headache… She was just so sleepy too, she was just so tired." 

Following the stressful ordeal, Philipps talked about seeking medical advice, running tests and her daughter's future plans, "He feels like she can go back to school, which she wants to do." 

Philipps also spoke about her own mental state after speaking to her therapist, saying, "I feel stuck. I feel like this year, I don't understand what's happening. I feel stuck in a f**king movie in a way that's not even disassociated, but literally like I keep getting put in different movies. I just want to be in mine. Like, my life again." 

An emotional Philipps teared up, noting that it's been a difficult year for her. 

"It's been a bad year," she shared. "I don't think I've had a year where it's been this relentless." 

Philipps took to her Instagram to share a snapshot into Birdie's time in the hospital. 

"Birdie is fine. I am fine. We are all going to be OK," she wrote. "But it’s been a time. and a year."

Birdie graduated middle school earlier this year and Philipps announced that her eldest daughter was heading abroad for boarding school. 

Back in August, Philipps admitted that she did not initially want Birdie to go abroad for boarding school. 

"[I'm] still in the process of dealing with it myself as a mom who, of course, just wants my babies to stay close to me," Philipps told People. "But I feel confident like Birdie's such a strong individual. She's such a smart, unique person that I feel really confident in her ability to succeed in whatever situation she's in."

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