Busy Philipps recalls ‘terrifying’ moment she watched daughter Birdie, 15, suffer a SEIZURE over FaceTime while away at boarding school in Sweden
Busy Philipps has opened up about the “terrifying” moment she watched her daughter Birdie have a seizure over FaceTime while she was at boarding school in Sweden.
The actress revealed shocking information about herself podcast and said it happened over the weekend while she and Birdie’s father Mark Silverstein were nearly 4,000 miles from New York.
“I was just muttering to myself and then I heard Mark yelling at me and I thought, ‘What does this damn guy want now?’ — recalled an excited Philipps.
She continued: “And I went upstairs, but then I heard his voice and realized that something was really wrong. And he just said, this is Birdie, this is Birdie. She had another seizure. Paramedics on the phone.
This is the second seizure for Birdie, who no longer uses they/them pronouns since she also had a seizure in March while Philipps was filming the musical “Mean Girls” in New Jersey.
Busy Philipps has opened up about the “terrifying” moment she watched her daughter Birdie have a seizure over FaceTime while she was at boarding school in Sweden.
“The ER was on FaceTime and she had just come out of a seizure and was still in posture,” the White Chicks star explained.
“They kind of hooked her up to something and FaceTimed her.”
Philipps felt helpless as Birdie called out to her.
‘It was It’s scary to see what she was like and how she just dragged on,” she added.
Luckily, the teenager was in the company of a friend who had traveled with her to Stockholm to see the Hunger Games prequel, The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes, in the cinema.
“Her friend who was with her was holding the phone, so it was kind of a weird medium shot. So you can see everything that’s happening. It was so weird,” Phillips said.
“(Birdie) was reaching towards the camera and just saying, like, calling me. I just say: “Mom. Mother. Mother. Where are you? Mother”.
Philipps said it was the girls’ decision to travel to Stockholm that day that led to them being in close proximity to the hospital.
— So they went to the cinema in Stockholm. It’s actually surprising that they were there because their school is far away… and there is no hospital near their school. So they went to Stockholm and ended up literally two minutes from a children’s hospital,” she told her audience.
This allowed paramedics to reach Birdie in record time.
The actress made the shocking announcement on her podcast and said it happened over the weekend while she and Birdie’s father Marc Silverstein (pictured in 2018) were nearly 4,000 miles away from New York.
“I was just muttering to myself and then I heard Mark yelling at me and I thought, ‘What does this damn guy want now?’ – recalled the excited Philipps; saw in November
“I think the paramedics arrived almost immediately.” And Birdie’s friend, Sarah, scream Sarah, literally, I don’t even understand,” she continued.
Philipps praised Sarah for her quick thinking and for going the extra mile to get Birdie’s help.
“She’s 17 but this girl managed to get one person to go and tell the theater to shut down, fuck it, she has two guys they obviously didn’t know about who were sitting in the back because Birdie started choking and vomiting . to gently lower Birdie to the ground and lay him on his side.
Sarah “had someone call Swedish 911” and she contacted the school to get contact information for Birdie’s parents.
Meanwhile, Philipps said she was frantically searching for a way to get to her daughter, even considering taking a private jet.
“I was literally Googling private jets. I thought, “How much does this cost? $100,000? Can I put this on a credit card? How it works?”
“I thought, ‘How come I don’t know anyone who has a damn private jet?’ I get to communicate with more interesting people.
“Would Taylor Swift take me to Sweden right now? Who knows Taylor Swift?
This is the second seizure for Birdie, who no longer uses they/them pronouns since she also had a seizure in March while Philipps was filming the musical Mean Girls in New Jersey; saw in 2022
Philipps said she frantically searched for a way to get to her daughter, even considering taking a private jet.
Swift is known to own a Dassault Falco car worth $40 million, which she often lends to her close friends and family.
Philipps recalled the panic she felt when Birdie had her first seizure in March, and how distance also played a role.
“(When it happened) I couldn’t, obviously I couldn’t leave the set of Mean Girls,” she said.
Birdie had not yet started college and was still living with her parents in New York, so it was easy for her father Mark to rush to her.
She continued: “And Mark ran to the school and got there at the same time as the paramedics, so he had seen her like this before.
“But (this time) it was really terrifying to see it on screen, being in another country, overseas.”
Earlier in the episode, she admitted she felt “stuck” and spoke with her therapist on Tuesday about the toll this year has taken on her mental health.
“I feel stuck. My therapist said yesterday that she was like, “You sound like you’re dissociating.” And I understand because I feel like this year I don’t understand what’s going on. I feel like I’m stuck in a damn movie and it doesn’t even distract me from socializing, just like I keep getting cast in different movies.
“And I just want to be in my own life again. It’s like in my movie, where everything is fine.”
“(Birdie) was reaching for the camera and just saying, ‘Calling me,’” she recalls. “I just say, ‘Mom. Mother. Mother. Where are you? Mother””
Philipps and Silverstein split last year but appear to continue to live under the same roof; saw in 2019
She and Silverstein also have an 11-year-old daughter, Cricket.
It is unclear whether Birdie was officially diagnosed with epilepsy.
According to Mayo ClinicDoctors typically diagnose patients with this disorder if they have had “at least two unprovoked seizures at least 24 hours apart.”
Philipps and Silverstein sent their eldest child off to college in August, and the actress admitted she’s still “trying to deal with it.”
She and Silverstein, who split last year but appear to continue to live under the same roof, also share 11-year-old daughter Cricket.
The Freaks and Freaks star and the screenwriter are still not officially divorced.