No evidence teacher and student sickened by same disease Muskegon, Mich. (WZZM)- Muskegon School Superintendent Colin Armstrong says he doesn't know if the illness that killed a kindergarten teacher somehow infected a 6 year old student fighting for his life. "What was the cause of death for the teacher, what was the cause of the illness for the child, are they related? We don't know," says Superintendent Armstrong. 56 year old teacher Margaret McCrary went home sick from school last Tuesday. She died Saturday. The day After Mrs. McCrary went home 6 year old student Zamarion Cooper became deathly ill. He's in critical condition at Mott Children's Hospital in Ann Arbor. The timing of the two cases makes the boy's family think Mrs. McCrary may have infected the student. "That it came from the teacher," says Zamarian's mother Keata Cooper. His family says doctors don't know what is wrong with Zamarion. They say he's receiving a variety of antibiotics. "He's just laying there," says the boy's mother. "He can't talk, move or do anything. He is just laying there fighting for his life." Mrs. McCrary had lupus, an auto immune disease that is not contagious. She was on sick leave all of last year, but until last week was well enough to work in the classroom this year. The superintendent says It's assumed but not certain her ongoing medical condition caused her death. "Our understanding is they either succumb to that illness or complications relating to that illness," he says. If the illness that killed the teacher is not responsible for the sickness in Zamarion his family wonders what is? How did he get it? Can it be cured? "I just want answers," says his mother. "Why it happened to my son and there isn't anybody trying to give me any answers." Keata Cooper says doctors are waiting for test results to help them diagnose and treat her son's illness. She says doctors give the boy a 65% chance of survival.
11/5/2009 9:00:32 PM
