When Mary and Albert Singleton arrived on the afternoon of Monday, April 28, to pick up their daughter from school in Mobile, Alabama, they were greeted by teachers carrying 4-year-old Algeria.
They had not been alerted that something might be wrong with their youngest child. A nurse at Collins-Rhodes Elementary School said it was probably an ear infection.
“But it was nothing of that nature,” Mary Singleton said.
Algeria was limp, for one.
“She was slobbering at the mouth,” her mother said.
The girl’s teacher at Collins-Rhodes Elementary School advised the Singletons to rush Algeria to the emergency room. They didn’t know what had happened to their daughter, who left for school that morning healthy and happy, nor did they have any idea how close to came to losing their little girl.
Algeria was transferred from one hospital to the next.
“One of the nurses turned around saying like, ‘Hey, just so y’all know, while being transferred, she threw up one time on the ambulance ride,’” Albert Singleton said. “She said, and that’s the blanket right over there, if you smell it, it don’t smell like vomit. That’s the smell of some type of disinfectant cleaner or something.”
The parents were confused.
“They finally came into the room and told us that ethanol was found in the system,” Algeria’s father said. “I was perplexed.”
Ethanol, which is the same kind of alcohol consumed by people in spirits, wine, and beer, also is used in products like hand sanitizer, food packaging, and some beauty and skin care products
The Singletons were stunned when they got her toxicology report showing her Blood alcohol content to be a shocking 0.29, a near-lethal amount for an adult, let alone a preschooler. Symptoms include loss of consciousness that can often result in a coma.
“How is this even possible?” Algeria’s father, Albert Singleton, asked. “Where was the supervision?”
How Algeria got ahold of the ethanol remains a mystery. School officials either don’t know or aren’t saying. A spokesperson for the school district said an investigation is underway. The Mobile County Sheriff’s Department has also launched an investigation.
“It’s hard to deal with when you see your child walking into school and being carried out, you know, and you don’t have any idea what’s going on,” Albert Singleton told Fox 10 in Mobile.
They are angry about how the whole situation was handled.
“We feel betrayed,” Albert Singleton said. “You know, and they know us personally, you know, because our other kids been going there before her, and they could have did a better reach out.”
Fortunately Algeria is back home and feeling better. She is expected to make a full recovery.
