Print

Email story

Comment

Email editor

Teacher hospitalized with mysterious illness

Doctors don't know why a 28-year-old man is confined to intensive care, breathing with the help of a ventilator.

By JAMAL THALJI
Published March 10, 2005

Even after a week, doctors still don't know what is making Lacoochee Elementary School teacher Benjamin Donatelli III sick.

They don't know what mystery illness has left the 28-year-old exhausted, confined to a bed in Tampa General Hospital's intensive care ward and breathing with the help of a ventilator.

All they know is that it's serious.

"We don't even really know what's wrong with him," said his wife, Marie. "He just actually came home, felt nauseous, and it just kind of went from there.

"It's definitely life-threatening. I just told them to do whatever they could for him."

March 3, he came home from work feeling ill, so his wife, a 35-year-old teacher at Wesley Chapel Elementary School, took him to East Pasco Medical Center's emergency room.

"He went from the emergency room to the ICU," his wife said, "and they've just been doing everything they could since."

His wife said there isn't much she can say about what is afflicting her husband, or what his symptoms are, save that it's "like the flu." Nor can the doctors treating him, who are at a loss to explain it.

"Actually they really aren't saying a whole lot right now," Mrs. Donatelli said. "They really don't know what's going on.

"They're doing everything that they can. But right now, the flu (symptoms) are the only thing that keep showing up."

Donatelli's condition has fluctuated, his wife said, from good to bad. He was at his worst Saturday, and Monday the family had him transferred to Tampa General.

Her husband uses his hands to communicate with family members who have been huddled around him all week. His wife said his condition was improving Wednesday, and the hospital listed him in fair condition.

"It depends on the day," she said. "Some days are better than others. (Wednesday) is okay."

Donatelli has been at Lacoochee Elementary for eight years, where he teaches the intermediate grades: third, fourth and fifth.

"He's the most wonderful young man," principal Karen Marler said. "He uses humor in his classroom, and that endears him to the children. He is a leader in our school and accepts a lot of additional responsibilities over and above his own job description."

Science is his true calling, his principal said. He is the school's science chairman and is one of the presenters at the "Science with Santa" activity nights.

Many children have been sending their teacher cards.

"They've had opportunities to understand that he is out," Marler said, "and opportunities to express themselves."

Donatelli and his wife met when she taught at Lacoochee Elementary. They have three children: Michael, 10, who attends Wesley Chapel Elementary; Adriana, 4; and Benjamin IV, 2.

Even while lying in the ICU, school isn't far from Donatelli's thoughts.

"He's definitely concerned about his kids and stuff at work," his wife said.

[Last modified March 10, 2005, 01:14:16]