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At first there were six sick students. Then it became seven o'clock. Before long, there were more than a dozen.
On Monday afternoon, 26 students and one staff member of Cardinal Gibbons High School were hospitalized with symptoms ranging from headaches and shortness of breath to nosebleeds, seizures and deaths, indicated officials.
The patients have been taken to three hospitals and all are improving, but the cause of the mass disease remains a mystery and is still under investigation, said fire officials.
They became ill after the student body attended a Thanksgiving prayer in the gym, said battalion chief Stephen Gollan, spokesman for the Fort Lauderdale Rescue Center.
After the students returned to their classrooms, unwanted symptoms began to be felt, Gollan said.
Some students had seizures and shortness of breath, others bleeding from their nose and others lost consciousness, said Gollan.
The students who became ill were of different ages, different classes, in different classes and in different social groups, said Gollan.
All this has allowed to rule out the possibility of a disease caused by a joke or a drug, he said. "It was too much of students and too prevalent."
The first 911 call was issued at approximately 11:30 am. Ambulance attendants, ambulances and a hazardous materials crew were at the school located at 2900 NE 47th St. in Fort Lauderdale to determine if the school was exposed to a substance the sick.
"There was nothing there in any of the hazmat sweeps," said Gollan. "There is no rhyme or reason right now. We really do not know. It's very very weird.
Alena Atonelli's son is a graduate of the private Catholic school. She went to campus after receiving a pre-recorded school call that seven children had fallen ill during the morning prayer, she said.
Antonelli called his son, who told him that he was feeling dizzy and that he had a headache but that everything was fine, she said.
"I'm just worried because if it's a leak, why do they still have kids in school?" Antonelli said. "It's annoying."
The school was locked while the team of hazardous materials specialists swept the campus, monitoring gas leaks and taking tampons to test more than 5,000 chemical compounds, Gollan said. Everything was negative, he says.
Images filmed overhead by TV reporters aboard helicopters showed students who appeared to be aware and alert while they were being placed in ambulances and taken to Broward Health Medical Center. Broward Health North and Holy Cross Hospitals.
All hospitalized people were stable and felt better in the afternoon, said Gollan. "They all improve and their blood work is negative."
In total, 1,140 students were enrolled on Monday. They were returned at their usual time of 14:40.
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