FAYETTEVILLE — Two of three Fayetteville High School students were released from the hospital Tuesday after they and two others ingested a poisonous plant known as jimson weed Monday.

“The student who’s still being held is doing much better from what I hear,” said Alan Wilbourn, spokesman for the Fayetteville School District. “We still don’t know wherethey got it or when they ingested it. It’s an ongoing investigation.”

Wilbourn said the students had an elevated heart rate and high fever during school Monday. They were transported by Central EMS to Washington Regional Medical Center where three of the fi ve students were treated overnight.

Two students were initially placed in the hospital’s intensive care unit, but were later transferred to cardiac care. As of Wednesday, only one student was still being treated.

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.

“It does create some delirium and hallucinations,” Wilbourn said.

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

News, Pages 1 on 11/05/2009

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nigerski says...

We live in Iowa. That's where our son and his friend decided to try some jimson weed on Friday, Nov. 6th. He was released from the hospital ten days ago, on Nov. 8th. He and his friend were in the hospital for two days. He barely remembers Monday. Friday night, all day Saturday and all day Sunday are gone from his memory almost completely. He was tied down in five-point restraints to a chair. They’d had him tied to the bed but he broke out of those. Twice. The hospital staff finally had to call the police to help. They brought a special chair to strap him down in. It took five police officers to get him down and hold him down to restrain him. 5 police versus one seventeen year old boy. Our son tried to punch a nurse, tried to rip out his catheter because he thought they were trying to cut his privates open, and vomited after he passed out cold. The doctor told us that based on when he threw up and when he was brought in to the hospital and how much of this he had ingested he would have died if he hadn’t thrown up. Luckily his friend hadn’t had as much and wasn’t in danger of dying. Our son is normally respectful of other people, such as nurses, doctors and police. None of his behavior during the time he was under the influence was ‘normal’ for him. The drug tests done on both boys came up negative, they aren’t drug addicts. They were curious and made a stupid choice. Thank god it didn’t cost my son his life.

November 17, 2009 at 11:32 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )