Eight children taken to hospital after seizure-like symptoms at church concert
About 70 other people who attended the concert were not affected.
Eight children at a church near Harvard University in Massachusetts where a French youth choir was holding a concert suffered seizure-like symptoms and were taken to hospital, officials in the US said.
The symptoms were not life-threatening, the Cambridge Fire Department said.
About 70 other people in attendance at the concert Tuesday evening at St Paul’s Parish in Harvard Square were not affected.
The children, described as preteens and early teens, were doing fine on Wednesday and were all released from local hospitals, according to the department.
The Cambridge Fire Department’s hazardous materials team determined fumes in the building could have come from cleaning supplies used shortly before the first complaint, the department’s release said.
Crews first received a call about a child suffering from a seizure.
When firefighters arrived, the child was sitting outside of the church but was not actively having a seizure, fire chief Thomas Cahill said.
“That quickly escalated into seven other people having seizure-like symptoms,” Mr Cahill told WCVB-TV.
The department’s hazmat team “completed a thorough survey of the St Paul buildings utilising several air sampling meters to ensure that no hazardous conditions were present,” the department said.
“Results were negative, and the buildings were ventilated.”
St Paul’s Facebook Page said a French youth choir, the Choeur d’Enfants d’Ile-de-France, was offering a free concert at the church on Tuesday night as part of its 2025 US tour.
