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Trying to catch her breath

Daughter recovering from pesticide-related incidents

By BEN NELMS
bnelms@TheCitizenNews.com

For Kelsey Langworthy, it was an experience like nothing she had ever faced.

Like other young athletes on one of the fields at Peachtree City’s Baseball/Soccer Complex last autumn, Kelsey was doing sprints when she felt her chest getting heavy. The experience was new to this athletic ninth-grader, never having asthma or any breathing-related problems prior to that time.

“At the end of practice I was feeling light-headed and dizzy,” Kelsey explained. “After I got home and took a shower I felt like my whole body was going to collapse. I couldn’t breathe. I was having a hard time standing and I was having a lot of pain in my stomach and in my chest.”

A visiting friend summoned Kelsey’s parents to her room. They evaluated her and summoned an ambulance for their 14-year-old daughter.

Kelsey was transported for medical attention. She stayed home from school for a day and had recuperated within a few days. But a return to the soccer field a couple of days later to watch a game resulted in a similar experience.

“My mom took me to the emergency room where I was prescribed an inhaler, something I’ve never had before,” Kelsey said. “But I’ve been using it before games ever since.”

Now nearly a year later, 15 year-old Kelsey has experienced similar reactions four times. On each occasion, only one common denominator exists. On each occasion, Kelsey was present at the ball fields.

Kelsey’s father, Bill Langworthy, clearly remembered the that first occasion last fall.

“When Kelsey got home from practice she was very flustered, very red in the face. We also found it very strange that her shoes and her socks were a blue/green color. She took her socks and shoes off and her feet were that color,” Langworthy said. “We told her to take a shower to cool down, but when she got out of the shower she was as red as before. Her breathing started to be labored so we told her to go lay down and try to relax. But her breathing became more and more labored.”

Langworthy said it was as if Kelsey was beginning to hyperventilate. Breathing into a paper bag had no result so an ambulance was called and Kelsey was given oxygen and transported to Piedmont Fayette Hospital’s emergency room.

“As a parent I have to tell you that there is no worse feeling in the world than when your child is struggling for air and looking for help and you don’t have answers,” he said. “The look of fear etched in her eyes when she had that oxygen mask on, I will never, until the day I die, forget that look. As a parent, you are helpless.”

Kelsey was treated and released after four hours but with no definitive diagnosis other than that she had experienced an allergic reaction, Langworthy said. Though not back to normal, Kelsey had a reoccurrence with the same symptoms days later when she returned to the soccer field to watch friends play. For the next three to four months, Kelsey continued having chest pain and nagging symptoms that she had never experienced prior to that first episode. For someone who is healthy and athletic and has been on a soccer field since age four, the whole thing is disturbing, her father explained.

Kelsey’s most recent episode occurred in August, when Langworthy was summoned to the field because his daughter was having another reaction.

“When I got out here Kelsey was bent over on the sideline. She was having the same type of pain, but the pain was stronger than before,” Langworthy said. “You could smell the chemicals.”

After a while in front of the car’s air conditioner, a persistent Kelsey was able to return to practice. Watching her at practice, those that know her say it is clear that Kelsey is a determined athlete. But she is not the only person to experience unusual symptoms after turning out for a game of soccer.

“This all started almost two years ago when the children came off the field all covered in blue-green dye,” said nurse Corrine Risch, whose children also play on Peachtree City’s athletic fields. “My children are younger, 11 and 9, so they had a bit more contact with the ground, they had it all over them and so did everyone on their team. They thought it was the coolest thing but I was alarmed, thinking it must be some kind of chemical.”

“I did some research on my own and found that a pesticide application had been made that afternoon,” Risch continued. “There is supposed to be a 24-hour drying period and obviously there wasn’t. And no one had been notified. The soccer association would have closed the field had they known, but they didn’t know it had taken place, no one knew it had taken place when all these hundreds of kids rushed the field to play and they got covered in it. We didn’t do any investigation at the time to see if anyone was sickened but subsequent discussion had led us to believe that that was so.”

Risch said the company that applied the pesticide was contacted, saying that it was a one-time error and that it would never happen again. The error, said Risch, was three-fold. The company failed to give notice of the application so the soccer association could take proper action and close the field, they didn’t post the application so people coming to the field could determine for themselves if they wanted their children to play and they did not provide adequate drying time, which by regulation is only 24 hours, she said. Obviously, the residue is there a lot longer than 24 hours, Risch added. An instance of an allergic reaction did happen again, she said. It happened to Kelsey.

Risch said research on pesticide exposure shows that chronic exposure includes the worsening of asthma, headaches, dizziness and flu-like symptoms. Other exposure levels can be much worse, including fatal allergic reactions and long-term effects associated with conditions such as non-Hodgkins lymphoma and brain tumors.

“This is completely unacceptable,” she stressed. “A couple of parents have noticed a pattern where they would bring their kids home from practice and two or three times during the season they’ll be very sick, needing breathing treatments or perhaps needing to go to the doctor. Not every practice, not every game. We believe there is an alternative method to adequately care for the field without endangering our children.”

Bill Langworthy, Corinne Risch and other parents are working with Peachtree City Parks & Recreation Department to ensure the safety of the children that use the athletic fields.

As for Kelsey Langworthy, she continues to use her inhaler and continues to play soccer under her father’s watchful eye. Her athleticism and love for soccer is undaunted. For Bill Langworthy and the other parents that watch from the sidelines, they want to their children to be able to enjoy the games they love, free to play without fear of harm.