There was a scare at St. Joseph’s Primary school in Belize City this morning as 9 students fainted almost simultaneously in church. Seemed straightforward, but 9 faintings? In church? It raised a lot of concern – and Jacqueline Godwin went to see what happened.

Jacqueline Godwin Reporting,
The cloudy skies that loomed above St. Joseph Primary School in Belize City did not bring much relief to the students who got more than their share of the warm weather. In fact it is believed that heat exhaustion is responsible for what occurred to at least nine standard six students when they were attending a service at St. Joseph Church.

Fifteen minutes into the one hour programme the children started feeling sick and had to be rushed by ambulance to the Karl Heusner Memorial Hospital. When 7NEWS arrived at the KHMH eleven year old Maria Correa had just been discharged. The young student’s mother gave us the consent to interview her daughter about what happened to them.

Maria Correa, 11 years old
“We start falling like flies, everybody started to faint.”

Jacqueline Godwin,
Was it hot or did you smell something strong or what?

Maria Correa,
“It was hot but people in the ambulance thought that there was a chemical because some one across the street sprays car and stuff like that and they thought we might have smelled stuff so they checked our blood.”

According to the school’s management the children had just gotten off from a break time where they had exerted themselves. And after that, they went straight into the church building.

Gilda Pipersburgh, Vice Principal
“Usually when they are in there we usually open up the building for them. We have fans but you during this period even the fans they are spinning but you’re feeling only hot breeze. When I went to the church I saw one child lying down because she was partly out and the others were just leaning up saying they had headaches and some of them felt like vomiting but that was as far as it went.

When we arrived at the KHMH I told them as much as I could and nurses and doctors were very helpful and they attended to the children. They took their blood pressure, their glucose level and so on and they gave them oral dehydration salts and after investigation and they carried out their observation, they said that they attribute it to the heat.”

Jacqueline Godwin,
How are you feeling right now?

Maria Correa,
“I am feeling better.”

Jacqueline Godwin,
That’s good to hear.

Following the children’s release from the KHMH they were all given the afternoon off from school. Jacqueline Godwin reporting for 7NEWS.