Flashback: Students of Nungua Senior High School
Academic activities at the Nungua Senior High School in Accra yesterday were brought to a halt when about 20 students suddenly collapsed at the school.
The incidence which occurred in the morning left the other students and school management in shock as the cause of the students’ unconsciousness could not be identified.
Sketchy details from some of the students indicated that the affected students were complaining of seeing ghosts and their former classmates who had passed away before losing consciousness.
But medical officers at the LEKMA Hospital where the students are receiving treatment have attributed it to mass hysteria.
Mass hysteria is a phenomenon that transmits collective illusions of threats, whether real or imaginary, through a population in society as a result of rumours and fear.
Dr Joseph Oliver Commey, a physician specialist at the hospital, corroborated what some of the students had said concerning the cause of the students’ collapse.
“They rushed to the emergency room with some behaving abnormally. But we found out that most of them were suffering from hysteria. They said they had seen things, some seeing ghosts, some seeing other students who are dead,” he revealed.
“We can’t work with that as clinicians so we have managed them. They are currently very stable and they are waiting to see the clinical psychologist. We’ve seen close to 18 students, and we are observing three others. By the end of the day, we’ll hand them over to the school authorities who are still here,” Dr Commey added.
Meanwhile, school authorities who accompanied the students to the hospital have declined to comment on the matter.
By Jamila Akweley Okertchiri