Demario Davis’ postgame interview after the Saints’ win against the Tennessee Titans in Week 1 of the 2023 NFL season is the most important speech of the year.
The New Orleans Saints linebacker played Sunday’s game against the Tennessee Titans with a heavy heart after what his daughter had to recently experienced.
Davis informed the media his young daughter suffered her third epileptic seizure. His wife Tamela rode in the ambulance with their daughter and later informed him that she stopped breathing twice on the way to the hospital. Davis brought in his bible and quoted scripture to begin his press conference, citing a passage in Revelation.
Carly-Faith is the same daughter who survived retinoblastoma and has been fully cleared of it. Davis said that if she went one more month without incident she would have been taken off medication. However, they now have to start over.
“It was on Friday when a bunch of kids were over at the house and she was playing and I noticed something was off,” Davis said.
“And I told her mom that I thought she was having a seizure. Her mom was pretty good. She saw it, my wife (Tamela). We took her in the room and didn’t want to cause a scene and she started to foam at the mouth. It was her worst seizure.”
“For 30 minutes, she seized. She wouldn’t calm. We had to call the paramedics. They came, and so over the course of time, it had been a total of 30 minutes, they got her in. My wife got in the paramedics with her. I got behind them driving. You could imagine all the thoughts that’s racing through your mind. The last sight you see of your daughter is she’s totally out of it.”
Medical personnel gave her medicine and the seizing stopped. However, there was some long-term concern from the family.
“At this point, if she’s seized for 30 minutes, you start to fear that there could be development issues that could mess with her brain. She stopped breathing, there’s no oxygen going to her brain. Starting to think her speech could be slurred, or anything. Or worse.”
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Davis said miraculously in the middle of the night after staying at the hospital, he heard a knock. It was his daughter.
“When I heard my daughter talk in the middle of the night — and my daughter doesn’t have any development issues, praise God. She doesn’t have any slurred speech prior to this. She woke up talking clearer than she was talking before. Now anyone who deals with epilepsy knows that it takes a few days for them to come back. They usually can get back to normal wherever they were, but it takes a couple of days. They’re groggy. It’s a lot, because what their body is like. It’s like the TV just staticky in her brain.”
“She was talking clearer than before, and it was 3 o’clock. We heard her talk and let her talk for about 20 minutes and said, ‘Hey baby, it’s nighttime, let’s go back to sleep.’ I just prayed, started saying, ‘Praise God. Praise God.’ The next morning when she got up, my daughter was so sharp. She was able to talk to me and her mom. I mean, clear conversation. She’s sharp for a four-year-old. No stuttering, all her words clear.”
He says his daughter is sharper than she was before.
Davis concluded his presser by promising to talk about football next week.
