...panic.
One of my little darlings just vomited during my 9am class. She "wasn't feeling well" to start with, and then she just booted, all over both herself and two girls in the back row.
This incident involved innocent victims!
Fortunately, this happened at the end of class, so we could kind of fudge the last five minutes and attend to the emergency. Not so fortunately, I am taking some medication that makes me a bit queasy myself but I did manage to soldier on.
What do I do when a student throws up in class? For all of the crazy stuff that - has - happened, this is a new one.
First, make sure you know the phone number to whatever your university calls your custodial / housekeeping department. :) If you are already friendly with that department, it helps - but if not, be super nice and ask for assistance.
ReplyDeleteAt my university, campus security are first responders for medical emergencies, and they can either help the sick student back to her dorm, or take her to student health services for help. Or they can call an ambulance if that's needed.
If it were the beginning or middle of a long class period, I'd say take a break for the situation to be dealt with / cleaned up, but let the class know attendance will be taken upon starting back up.
This is my first comment, but I've been lurking since the start - I work in the plant operations department, so I'm not an academic, per se, but I certainly relate to the talk of university drama and snowflake-y students!!!
I thought barfing in class went out with the second grade...
ReplyDeleteI take field trips, which involve buses, which frequently leads to nauseated students.
ReplyDeleteThe most memorable incidents so far were:
a) a student grabbed another student's wellington (rubber boot in US-speak I think) and threw up in it neatly. BEFORE we got to the field site where the boots were needed.
b) a student stumbled to the front of the bus retching, the driver opened the door, student and colleague got out... and the driver just drove off and left them there! It took a while to get back adn pick them up, partly because of the road system, partly because the driver didn't speak English and I only had minimal trip-country-ese - the colleague who got off was the one with the language skills.
I had the same thing happen on a field trip. I was taking a group of about 20 college kids to a museum, and we were running late. One of them told me that he wasn't feeling well and had to vomit, and I knew of a McDonald's en route about five minutes away, so I asked if he could wait that long. He said he could.
ReplyDeleteWe pulled into the parking lot of the McDonald's, and he ran into the restaurant, where he presumably vomited in the toilet.
While we were stopped, another student asked if he could go use the bathroom in the McDonald's. I said no, because we were only fifteen minutes from the museum and running very late. He begged and begged, and since we were waiting for the vomiter anyway, I said okay, but he had to be back sooner than the vomiter.
You can predict what happened. The vomiter returned soon, and then the whole bus waited for the second kid--who eventually strolled on board carrying a cheeseburger and soda.
During the same field trip, two other (underage) students snuck out to a bar, where they both got drunk and behaved like asses at the museum. And as we were packing up the bus to leave at the end of the day, one of the drunkards asked to use the bathroom. I told him to go use the bathroom in the museum. No, he said, he had to go to the gas station across the street. I forbade him from going to the gas station--an entire bus of people was again waiting for just one person. He gave me a defiant look and ran across the street anyway, then proceeded to stand outdoors in broad daylight and urinate on the side of the gas station's convenience store.
Since this disastrous trip, I've switched from a school bus to university vans, which means that some students get to be the drivers. I basically don't care how the hell they get there as long as they arrive at the museum on time. I drive myself separately.
It's been four or five years with the vans, and EVERY YEAR the students have gotten a speeding or parking ticket. Sometimes two or three.
In retrospect, the vomiter was the most responsible party in this whole debacle.
I'd say this was a new one on me, but I do recall a similar incident: when I was a student in 5th grade.
ReplyDeleteA friend of mine once barfed in class -- and on a fellow student -- during his freshman year. Ironically, it kinda worked out for him. The girl he puked on started dating him later that same year, and they were a couple for the next three years.
ReplyDeleteI've puked a couple of times during class. Once as a freshman in college. And a couple of times as a faculty member. Each time I've been able to (almost) make it to the toilet. My policy is to run out when I have the urge. All of these sick episodes are migraine related so I generally have an idea vomit is possiblity. In these cases I teach in low light and tell my students at the beginning of class what's up. They've always been very empathetic. Now that I think about it my puke-y classes are the ones that I seem to have the best connection with.
ReplyDeleteI'd opt for running away.
ReplyDeleteI did call facilities, who actually THANKED ME for letting them know because apparently...other faculty just leave the sticky trail of vomit residue in their classrooms? Yeah. Apparently so.
ReplyDeleteIn the interest of full disclosure, I fainted in front of a class once. The good part was that while it was all rather sudden, I realized what was going to happen in time to sit down on the floor so that I didn't smack my head on the lino-covered cement. I came to and found the (unfortunately) very attractive EMT-trained kid in my class hovering over me solicitously.
They were good kids, and sympathetic, and eish...he was hot.
All the parents are probably shrugging and thinking, "It's only throw-up."
ReplyDelete:-)