Teachers seeking flu shots given insulin

ST. LOUIS -- A St. Louis County school district is investigating how five elementary school teachers were mistakenly dosed with insulin instead of the flu vaccine, an error that led to the hospitalization of two women.

The St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported Tuesday that two teachers in the Parkway School District were rushed by ambulance to the hospital in late September. Three more teachers at Shenandoah Valley Elementary School in Chesterfield received the wrong shots and also got sick.

A district spokesman said the school system has stopped providing flu shots to teachers and other employees while it investigates. A Shenandoah Valley nurse who administered the shots has since resigned.

"Nobody is more devastated about this than she is," Parkway spokesman Paul Tandy said.

Attorney Paul Passanante, who represents the two sickened teachers, said one of the women suffered convulsions at the school and was transported by ambulance to a local hospital, where she was diagnosed with insulin shock.

The other stricken teacher suffered nausea, dizziness and a drop in her potassium levels, he said, and both lost consciousness.

The two teachers "are having very serious emotional issues as a result of this and suffering both anxiety and depression," their attorney said. "Further, their inability to get answers to their question is causing them extreme frustration."