Lawanna Horton holds her 1-year-old son, Garrett, just a few days after the boy’s return from a six-day stay at the hospital for repeated, fever-induced seizures. Two of Garrett’s sisters, Kaylee, 6, left, and Joely, 5, look happy that their brother will be fine. (Ben Murray / S&S)
BAD KISSINGEN, Germany — Quick reactions and cool nerves from staff members at Bad Kissingen Elementary School helped stabilize a little boy who went into a fever-induced seizure while at the school.
Lawanna Horton, the boy’s mother, said she was attending a parent-teacher conference at the school last month when her 1-year-old son Garrett became agitated in his stroller.
Within minutes, she said, her son began to shake, his eyes became fixed and he stopped responding to her calls.
“His temperature just shot up all of a sudden,” she said. “He would blink every now and then, but he would not respond to us.”
Horton grabbed the boy and ran into the school’s front office, yelling for help. There she found the school nurse, Nicole Austin.
Caring for the boy quickly became a team effort, said school secretary Alba Torres, who was in the office at the time. While Austin took the lead in stabilizing Garrett, Steve Reinfurt, a first-grade teacher with emergency medical training, arrived to assist, she said.
Another teacher called German paramedics.
“Everyone, amazingly, was calm,” Torres said, but the experience was harrowing. “As a parent, it was scary, and you feel pretty much impotent.”
Little Garrett, whose father is Staff Sgt. Wendell Horton of Company A, 1st Battalion, 26th Infantry Regiment, remained unresponsive until the paramedics arrived, and has since spent a week in the hospital after suffering two more prolonged seizures, Lawanna Horton said.
Other members of the family have had similar episodes — including herself and at least two of her four daughters — but not so young or so frequently, she said, prompting her to hospitalize Garrett for tests two weeks ago.
Doctors said the toddler hasn’t suffered any long-term effects, she said, and the seizures are not cause for serious alarm.
