Poison Plant Sends Students To Hospital

SCHOOL OFFICIAL: TEENS MAY FACE DISCIPLINARY ACTION

By Kate Ward

Wednesday, November 4, 2009

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FAYETTEVILLE — Two Fayetteville High School students were in Washington Regional Medical Center’s cardiac care unit Tuesday after they and three others ingested a poisonous plant known as jimson weed on Monday.

“The students started having problems in the afternoon with high heart rates and fever of 104 degrees,” said Alan Wilbourn, a spokesman for the Fayetteville School District. “Their teachers called the school nurse, who identified the situation and called an ambulance.”

Three of the students required overnight stays in the hospital Monday night.

Wilbourn said two students were initially placed in the hospital’s intensive care unit, but were later transferred to cardiac care.

As of Tuesday, all three were still being treated.

“Fortunately their conditions areimproving today, but I don’t know any specifics or their prognosis,” he said.

Wilbourn notified all parents of the situation by a text message Tuesday, urging them to warn children about the dangers associated with jimson weed - a poisonous plant that grows throughout the U.S.

According to the National Institutes of Health, jimson weed poisoning occurs when someone sucks the juice, eats the seeds from the plant or drinks tea made from its leaves. The plant is most often ingested by young people who areunfamiliar with its reputation and unprepared for its side effects, which include dry mouth, dilated pupils, high temperature, blurred vision, confusion, euphoria and delirium. In some cases, it can be fatal. Common names for jimson weed include thornapple, stinkweed and locoweed.

“Apparently it’s very common and grows all the way from Texas to New England,” Wilbourn said. “It’s sometimes used as an ornamental plant. It’s a very pretty fl ower. The seed pod has spikes all over it,which is probably Mother Nature’s way of saying ‘stay away.’”

Though jimson weed is not illegal, Wilbourn said all fi ve students may face disciplinary action.

“We don’t know if they ingested it before or during school, but after doing some research, I found out that it takes a while to get into the system,” he said. “It’s not considered to be a controlled substance or a narcotic because it’s not addictive. Usually, the first experience is so unpleasant that you don’t want anymore of it. This is a unique situation, so we’ll let the principal decide the student discipline process.”

School offcials had yet todetermine where the students obtained the plant or where they ingested it, as of Wednesday afternoon.

“This is a very isolated incident,” Wilbourn said. “The school is still trying to determine exactly what transpired.”

The plant is light green, with flat, elongated leaves that are wider at the base and tapered toward the ends. The fl owers are long and funnelshaped, and can be white or pale violet. The seed pods are oval shaped and covered with long, sharp spines which serve to keep away possible predators. The pods ripen in mid-late summer and open, allowing small, round, flat seeds to fall out.

Nilda Burgos, a professor of weed science at the University of Arkansas, said jimson weed was once a plant that infiltrated crop areas, but other weeds have become more of a problem in recent years.

Burgos said the university has jimson weed in its weed nursery and it’s one that students must identify in their weed courses.

News, Pages 1 on 11/04/2009

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