By Robert Patrick And Jessica Bock
St. Louis Post-Dispatch
St. LOUIS, Mo. — Two Parkway elementary school teachers were rushed by ambulance to the hospital last month after being mistakenly dosed with insulin instead of the flu vaccine, the teachers’ lawyer said Monday.
Lawyer Paul Passanante said that three other Shenandoah Valley Elementary School teachers were sickened the morning of Sept. 26, and reported the symptoms to the school nurse, Joanne Peugh. She informed her supervisor, he said.
Parkway had been offering the flu vaccine for teachers and other employees at all of its buildings through its insurance provider but has discontinued the shots as a precaution while the district investigates whether the nurse at Shenandoah Valley accidentally administered insulin, spokesman Paul Tandy said.
Hundreds of employees had received the vaccine with no other major complications.
“We all had the same batch, and it leads them to think it must be something else,” Tandy said. When questioned, the nurse said she thought she had administered the flu vaccine; however, she has access to insulin for students who need it. She has since resigned, he said.
“Nobody is more devastated about this than she is,” he said.
Passanante’s clients, Elizabeth Seibel and Susan Vent, received the vaccine in the afternoon and were told not to leave the school for 30 to 40 minutes after the shot, he said.
Both, he said, became “very ill” and went to the nurse’s office.
Seibel, a third-grade teacher, began convulsing and passed out, he said. Peugh called 911, and an ambulance took Seibel to St. Luke’s Hospital, where she was diagnosed with acute, severe hypoglycemia, which is sometimes known as insulin shock. It took staff five hours to get her blood-sugar levels normalized, Passanante said.
Vent, who teaches fourth grade, experienced nausea, dizziness and confusion and suffered a drop in potassium at St. Luke’s that caused her severe pain and a loss of consciousness as well, Passanante said.
Vent had the same diagnosis and spent seven or eight hours at the hospital, he said.
GlaxoSmithKline, the distributor of the vaccine, also is investigating. Spokesman Robert Perry said in an email that the company was notified Sept. 30 that five people in Chesterfield “had reported adverse reactions after reportedly receiving a GSK flu vaccine.” The quality assurance and safety team immediately began investigating the incident.
“Patient safety is our first priority, and we are confident our quality-control standards ensure the safety of all influenza vaccines made available for patients,” he wrote.
The vaccine is manufactured by ID Biomedical Corp. of Quebec, he said, and comes in 5-?milliliter ?vials — enough for 10 doses. The vial at Shenandoah Valley was almost full when it should have been half-empty, Tandy said.
Passanante said both teachers thought that Peugh handled their symptoms professionally. When she did not return to school, he said, teachers were told that she was upset.
Passanante said Seibel and Vent “are having very serious emotional issues as a result of this and suffering both anxiety and depression. Further, their inability to get answers to their question is causing them extreme frustration.”
Passanante complained that the school district had balked at providing information necessary to determine how the mistake happened. He believes that either the school nurse mixed up the vials or the vaccine was contaminated.
The district wants an independent test of the vial used for the five doses at Shenandoah Valley that day. An EMT took the vial to St. Luke’s with the teacher, and officials there sent it to the manufacturer.
District officials say they also contacted St. Louis County Health Department officials, who did on-site interviews on Monday after the reactions, and St. Luke’s notified the federal Food and Drug Administration. A spokeswoman there said officials do not confirm the existence of an investigation until it’s complete.
“We’re investigating the possibility it was something (Peugh) did,” Tandy said. “If she did, we believe it was accidental.”
Peugh’s lawyer, Frederick B. Kruger, declined to comment on the alleged incident.
Peugh’s nursing license was issued in Missouri in 1993, according to state records. She has no listed discipline in Missouri, or in Kentucky or West Virginia, where she received her licenses in 1978.
A flu vaccine clinic for Shenandoah Valley students is scheduled for Oct. 14, according to the school website, but those vaccinations are administered through a separate program, Tandy said.
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©2014 the St. Louis Post-Dispatch