Quick actions by Abington Heights students help teacher having seizure
SOUTH ABINGTON TWP. — April 15 started out as any other day for Abington Heights High School teacher Barbara Moss.
But when she noticed her leg, then her whole body, shaking, she knew something was wrong and called for her students to help.
Without thinking, they sprang into action, stabilizing her and grabbing her fellow teachers and the nurse. Their actions helped Moss get medical attention, which led to her being diagnosed with a form of lung cancer.
That morning, Moss, a science teacher at the school for 22 years, was 30 minutes into teaching her microbiology level II class and went to get a box of books. Walking back to her classroom, she noticed muscle contractions in her leg. When she returned to her classroom, the muscle shaking worsened and she told senior Colin Price to get help and call 911. Moss then sat down at her desk and when she did, her whole body started shaking.
“She told us her leg couldn’t stop shaking,” recalled senior Jamile Durante on Friday afternoon in the microbiology classroom.
Moss again asked her students to get help and get her on the floor. Juniors LeAnna Waters and Skylar Mercado helped get her there, while Price, Jamile and senior Mark Lynott got the school nurse, Beth Stone, and seniors Emily McDonald and Leelah Farrell got a neighboring teacher. They recalled how calm Moss was during the seizure.
“She made the situation pretty easy,” Price said. “She was talking us through everything. It was super controlled, which was helpful.”
LeAnna, an emergency medical technician with the Chinchilla Hose Company, said she knew instantly to get Moss to the floor. Stone and teachers Rosa Sabie, Sarah Geoffroy and John Uram stayed with her and alerted school administrators, while Assistant Principal Michael Hofmann called her husband, Ken Moss, a teacher in the Hazleton Area School District. Emergency medical technicians from Chinchilla Hose Company brought her to Regional Hospital of Scranton.
Principal Lee Ann Theony was surprised when she got an alert saying 911 had been called and found her colleague on the floor with her students and Stone. She said she was impressed that the students, teachers and Moss had the situation under control.
A week later, Moss learned she was diagnosed with non-small cell lung adenocarcinoma with metastasis to the brain, a form of lung cancer that spread to her brain. She said it was a very startling outcome from something she thought was a seizure or stroke, particularly because she doesn’t smoke.
“Completely out of the blue, like struck by lightning,” she said.
Skylar said she was initially panicked with how sudden the seizure occurred, but hearing her teacher’s call for help and seeing her classmate come to her aid prompted her to help Moss. LeAnna, who received her EMT certification in February, didn’t expect to utilize the skills she uses with the fire company in school. She said they allowed her to remain level headed during the situation.
“I’ve had experience in the field with high stress so I was just like, ‘just stay calm,’ ” she said. “Everyone else around you is panicking, so there has to stay calm.”
Since her diagnosis, Moss completed radiation treatments to treat the cancer through Geisinger and Northeast Radiation Oncology Centers in Dunmore. She has consulted with the University of Pennsylvania for additional treatment. The students are hoping for the best for their teacher.
Moss, who plans to return to teaching, is grateful her students responded that morning and isn’t surprised they responded the way they did.
“I was in the right place in the right time. All my students did all of the right things that I asked them to do,” she said. “I had no doubt in my mind if I asked a student for help in that room that they would do it. I was very proud of them.”
Theony and Hofmann are also proud of the students.
“These young people are 17, 18 years old and to step up in a moment like that, it’s something most adults wouldn’t be able to do,” he said. “They acted very maturely.”
