Mysterious Illness Sends 40 Students To Hospital
October 4, 2008 by national
Filed under Stories of Interest
Emergency officials are saying as many as 40 Knoxville school children became ill while on a field trip.
Knox County schools spokesman Russ Oaks said that 35 eighth graders from West Valley Middle School on Friday were attending a Civil War re-enactment on a farm in Corryton when some began to complain of nausea and blurred vision.
35 were transported to area hospitals, and the majority had been released by Friday afternoon. Oaks said there were no reports of adults being ill.
Authorities don’t know what caused the students to become sick, and Oaks said the Knox County health department is investigating the incident.
From The Knoxville News Sentinel
Sick students wait for treatment Friday after they fell ill while en route to a Civil War re-enactment in Corryton. The children from West Valley Middle School complained of nausea, vomiting and blurred vision, said Bill Kear, a spokesman for Rural/Metro.
Knox County Health Department officials said they haven’t ruled out any possible causes yet of a mysterious outbreak that sent 40 students from West Valley Middle School to three area hospitals Friday after they fell ill during a field trip to a Civil War re-enactment in East Knox County.
The majority of the eighth-graders were released from the hospitals later in the afternoon and were recovering from symptoms such as nausea, dizziness and a heavy feeling in their limbs, said Ranee Randby, spokeswoman for the health department. Two of the children were admitted to East Tennessee Children’s Hospital, although specifics weren’t available, she said.
“I wish we could say we’ve had a eureka moment, but we haven’t,” Randby said. “It’s just a matter of trying to eliminate possibilities.”
The children were among some 350 West Valley eighth-graders attending the event, which brought hundreds of other students from various Knox County schools to a site near Washington Pike and Circle Road for a re-enactment of the Battle of Fort Sanders.
Ambulances transported the students to Children’s Hospital, as well as St. Mary’s Medical Center and Parkwest Medical Center.
