Purple Canary: The Girl Who Was Allergic To School: The True Story Of How School Chemicals Unleashed A Rare Illness That Devastated A Young Girl's Life

Bizarre symptoms and debilitating neurological attacks that happened only at school upended eleven year old Jills world. Skeptical medical specialists attributed the odd recurrent symptoms to the adoptees biological inheritance then to a mental illness. Disbelieving school officials labeled her an attention-seeking faker. Jill and her mother Joyce insisted the symptoms had a physical base. Medical experts were shocked when DNA testing proved that the mutant gene associated with a rare genetic metabolic/enzyme disorder was harbored in Jills liver. Acute Intermittent Porphyria is seldom identifi ed in U.S. adults never mind children. Through it all Joyce was on the hunt for a connection between the school and the relentless symptom and temporary treatment merry-go-round. Finally she found it. Jill was ultrasensitive to chemical fumes that permeated the local school buildings. She was literally allergic to school--a purple canary harbinger of an inherent danger in todays chemical-laden education facilities. Purple Canary is more than a tale of a girl and her mother struggling for answers. Its a story of mothers intuition; medical misdiagnoses; special education categories; contemporary school bullying; a school chemical toxicity/illness connection; questionable academic and medical ethics and the simple truth that we all fear what we dont understand.