Eight children performing with a French choir at a church near Harvard University Tuesday night were hospitalized after experiencing “seizure-like symptoms” during the concert, first responders said.
The Cambridge Fire Department responded to St. Paul Parish on Mount Auburn Street around 7:30 p.m. for a medical emergency, officials said in a news release.
One member of the group — The Chœur d’Enfants d’Île-de-France — had reportedly suffered a seizure during the performance, local ABC affiliate WCVB reported.
When fire crews arrived, one child sitting on the front steps of the church wasn’t actively seizing, according to the city’s fire chief, Thomas Cahill.
“That quickly escalated into seven other people having seizure-like symptoms,” Cahill told WCVB. “They were all transported to hospitals around the Cambridge area.”
All affected children were between the ages of 11 and 13, according to John Gelinas, a spokesperson for the Cambridge Fire Department.
All were experiencing “seizure-like symptoms,” Gelinas told Boston.com.
The fire department’s hazmat team completed “a thorough survey of the St. Paul buildings utilizing several air sampling meters to ensure that no hazardous conditions were present,” fire officials said. “Results were negative and the buildings were ventilated.”
No one in the audience, which included about 70 people, was affected.
“This was somewhat unusual,” Cahill told WCVB. “It was a routine medical call that quickly escalated into transporting eight children to the hospital.”
The Chœur d’Enfants d’Île-de-France, a world-renowned youth choir, was performing in Cambridge as part of the group’s 2025 U.S. tour. Tuesday’s free concert was set to include an “exciting mix of sacred and secular repertoire, as well as popular French songs.”
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