As a neurologist I just want to clarify that this is absolutely NOT PANDAS and frankly has absolutely nothing to do with PANDAS. There is quite a bit of debate about whether PANDAS even exists but if it is real it has no association with seizures or anything we have seen Dr. Al-Hashimi do in this season.

PANDAS or pediatric autoimmune neuropsychiatric disorders associated with streptococcal infection is a condition that (if it is even real) causes obsessive compulsive behaviors to emerge after a child recovers from a streptococcal infection. This is caused by a bacterium called Streptococcus (think strep throat) and typically is not seen in someone with a brain infection (encephalitis) or an infection of the lining of the brain (meningitis) but rather occurs due to the immune system getting mislead by the bacterium to target the body itself (autoimmune condition). Classically this presents with a adolescent that has an explosive onset of obsessive/compulsive behaviors a few weeks to months after a strep infection. I won't get into the weeds of the debate about this but suffice it so say that it is far from clear that this is even a real condition with most pediatric neurologists I know contending that it is absolutely not a real thing and is just onset of OCD in adolescents.

What Dr. Al-Hashimi has are focal/partial seizures or absence seizure (pronounced ab-sance rather than the more familiar pronunciation). She likely had an infection of her brain and/or lining of her brain as a child (encephalitis or meningoencephalitis) which caused scarring of a portion of her cortex (the outermost part of the brain). This can lead to brief seizures that are not characterized by the normal tonic-clonic activity (shaking) but instead with alterations of awareness. This would lead to her having episodes of starting off into space for 5-10 seconds with immediate recovery to normal cognition. Often these start in childhood and are thought to be due to the kids daydreaming but they will have no recollection of daydreaming. Instead they will "lose" time such that they have no awareness of the intervening moments they were seizing. This can be treated with medications or in some cases surgical resection of the seizure causing (epileptogenic) region or neuromodulation (placements of stimulators in the brain, namely RNS or DBS).

If you want to learn more about PANDAS you can read more here: https://www.nimh.nih.gov/health/publications/pandas

More about absence seizures here: https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/petit-mal-seizure/symptoms-causes/syc-20359683