22 Phuket school children in Thailand treated in mass hysteria outbreak

July 2, 2013 – THAILAND – Twenty two schoolchildren aged 13 to 15 were taken to Patong hospital for treatment after they collapsed screaming and crying at morning assembly today (July 1) at Wat Suwankeereewong School in Patong. Dr. Sirichai Silpa-archa, director of Patong Hospital, said that he first heard about the incident from the Narenthorn Emergency Center, which informed him that one boy and 21 girls had been affected. At the hospital staff calmed them down, though some of the more serious cases, suffering from anxiety, seizures, muscle spasms or hyperventilation, were given Valium to calm them down. Psychiatrists were also drafted in to talk to the children. Health staff found that this was the second time in four days that this group had experienced mass hysteria. On Friday (June 28) they were on a visit to the Anti-Narcotics Training Project at Chulabhorn Marine Park Conservation Centre in Thap Lamu, Phang-Nga. After their outbreak of screaming there, they had to be taken to hospital in Phang Nga but all appeared to recover quite quickly. However, this morning, something once again sparked off the hysterics at a perfectly normal morning ceremony at the school. Today, 13 of the students were released and told to go home, another six were also released but were told to call the hospital if they felt strange again, while three remain in hospital for observation. Dr. Sirichai characterized the incidents as “mass psychogenic illness”. – Phuket News

Supernatural culprit? PHUKET: — Nearly two dozen Phuket students were rushed to Patong Hospital this morning after they collapsed screaming and convulsing during morning assembly – three out of the nine students who were administered anesthesia by doctors at the hospital remain there.  According to reports, the culprit seems to be a ghost in the tourist haven Khao Lak who was offended by a girl putting her sarong in an “inappropriate place.” The students, 21 girls and one boy between 13 and 15 years old, collapsed into their screaming frenzy while at morning assembly at Wat Suwan Khiri Wongwere School  at about 8:20am. A teacher at the school who declined to be named told the Phuket Gazette that all of the students affected were taken to Khao Lak on a Scouts camping trip on Friday.  The troop returned yesterday. “While we were on the camping trip, one of the girls hung her sarong in an inappropriate place,” he said, declining to be more specific about where the sarong was placed. “Later, other students reported seeing what seemed to be a woman sitting on that girl’s shoulders.” Stranger, “While we were in Khao Lak, I even had a dream in which a voice told me to take the girl back to where she hung her sarong and apologize,” said the teacher. “But I ignored the dream. It didn’t make sense… Then this happened this morning,” the teacher said. Dr Sirichai Silapa-archa, director of Patong Hospital, told the Gazette, “They were all in shock. They were hyperventilating, so we calmed them down and aided in slowing their breathing.” Thirteen of the students were released from the hospital before lunch, but the other nine were still screaming and convulsing, he said. “We had to put them under general anesthesia so they could sleep and recover while they were unconscious,” said Dr Sirichai. –TVF