Posted on 11/06/2011 12:10:36 PM PST by mickeylee
Authorities in Houston are still searching for answers after an area high school football game was called off early after nearly two dozen fans were hospitalized after suddenly becoming sick in the stands of Barnett Stadium on Friday night.
During the second half of the game between Austin (Texas) High and Houston (Texas) Yates, many members of the band and dance team from Austin started suffering from nausea, vomiting and dizziness and began collapsing in the stands, according to numerous media reports.
Officials feared they had been exposed to some type of biohazard and called hazmet teams to the scene but no traces of gases or chemical agents were found.
Nevertheless, the stadium was cleared and the game was called with Yates leading, 47-14.
The students, many complaining of nausea, were sent for more medical evaluation.
"We ended up with 22 students being transported to five different hospitals," Houston Fire Department assistant chief David Almaguer told the local FOX affiliate, KTRK-TV.
Food poisoning of some sort remains a possibility for the incident, but initially appears unlikely as those who were sick ate different meals at different times in different places before the game.
"The kids all ate at different places, some of them ate at different times ... but they did have something in their stomachs," Emergency Medical Services doctor David Purse told the station. "At this point, it remains a little unclear what set it off."
Officials, however, aren't taking any chances. A football game scheduled to be played there on Saturday afternoon has been moved to another location.
very little wind Friday night.
Trial run?
I’ve seen a mass hysteria event in an office environment several time. One person throws up and all of a sudden another does and pretty soon you’re taking 15 employees to the hospital. Environmental test results show nothing.
Carbon monixide?
I don’t mean to make fun of this, but it does sound right out of “South Park”, where the cause would be traced to Eric Cartman and empty boxes of Ex-Lax...
Hope it turns out to be nothing serious.
Exactly, plus the smell of vomit often causes nausea and vomiting in it’s own right.
Chain puking reaction.
You old enough to remember Lard Ass from Stand By Me?
How many times have you seen on the local news stories of “noxious odor” at a location and it only seems to affect one race of people.
were they all in the same section of the stadium?
if so, an attack seems likely... dry run more likely for large attack
I wonder if the band accidentally played the Brown Note.
My husband said this happened to him in high school - he was at a football stadium and everyone on the field started getting sick. What they suspected was the exhaust from all the vehicles and buses settling on field level (which was lower than the surrounding landscape)
Mass hysteria, I agree.
Back in the late 70’s, my high school from Dallas (Lake Highlands) went to a football game in Nacogdoches in East Texas. It was very, very hot, and about half the marching band collapsed during halftime. We spent a lot of time at the hospital that night. I thankfully did not get sick.
A bunch of us have talked since, and some think it was food poisoning and others think it was heat exhaustion.
Our band director has told us that marching band rules changed that night and they now have water and Gatorade at the games. Also, lots of schools have summer uniforms.
Most of them could possibly have been drinking the same soft drinks from the field’s vendor. Could be a contaminated drink machine.
LOL!
I’ve read about these mass hysteria sickness events, and that was my first thought.
Lardass. Nice flick reference.
Weird.
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