'Deadliest Catch' Star Norman Hansen Suffers a Seizure on Camera

On the May 21 episode of Deadliest Catch, fans watched in horror as Norman Hansen, Captain Sig's brother, suffered a seizure while on board the Northwestern. The engineer’s sudden health crisis threw Sig for a loop and prevented the crew from getting a jump-start on opie season. 

Viewers witnessed the aftermath of Norman’s fall as the team did their best to stabilize him. "Roll him on his side," one crew member instructed. Another shouted, "Seizure! He’s having a seizure! He’s turning blue!"

When it was determined that the expert mechanic wasn’t breathing, one deckhand turned to the camera and yelled, "Don’t f--king film this."

Before the EMTs arrived, Norman once again gained consciousness, though there was a little blood where he had hit his head. "I think this is worse than we think," Sig admitted as his brother was transported to the local clinic. "That’s what I’m afraid of."

After talking to the doctor about Norman’s condition, Sig delivered some sobering news to the rest of the Northwestern crew. "He’s not good," the 53-year-old revealed. "Norman has a head injury, but they don’t have a CT scan here, so we’re waiting on a medevac to go to Anchorage because right now they don’t know if there’s hemorrhaging."

As he recounted his brother’s current status, Sig grew emotional. "We’re not gonna know for another eight hours and every minute counts," he said while wiping away tears.

Thankfully, Tuesday’s episode didn’t end on a devastating note. Sig received word from Anchorage that the doctor hadn't found any injuries in Norman’s brain. After hearing the positive report, the captain ordered his boat to set sail.

Norman has yet to speak out publicly about his frightening ordeal, but he did post a new photo on his Facebook page one day after the episode aired. The image shows a handful of kittens climbing all over the engineer’s lap. 

"Good to see you doing well and enjoying some snuggling," one fan wrote underneath the picture. Another added, "Glad you’re doing well. Furbabies are an awesome aid in helping you to feel better."

Norman isn’t the only Hansen to have had a health scare in the last year. In a recent interview with EW, Sig opened up about his trip to the ER in October. 

"Honesty what happened was, I was on an antibiotic, and I had an allergic reaction to it," the fisherman shared. "My wife and I were driving and I started to swell up, my throat, hands, everything."

"She called 911, I kept driving 100 miles an hour and went right to the ER. The nurse said I probably had less than 10 minutes," he continued. "They checked my blood levels and said, 'Jesus Christ, you are having a heart attack.' The allergic reaction brought on a heart attack."

Sig previously suffered a heart attack on camera in 2016 and admitted that he’s still afraid to go on his boat. "I don’t like it anymore," he confessed. "It’s been really hard. I don’t know how much more I’ve got left in me."

Watch new episodes of Deadliest Catch on Tuesdays at 9 p.m. ET on Discovery.