A New Jersey day care center accidentally served bleach to twenty-eight preschoolers and two adults during snack time on Thursday, Reuters reported. The victims were rushed to the hospital after some complained that their stomachs were burning.
Five ambulances transported the children, aged 3 and 4, and adult staff members of the Growing Tree Learning Center in downtown Jersey City to the Jersey City Medical Center after receiving a late-morning call to 911, Mark Rabson, a hospital spokesman, said. By midafternoon, all 30 patients had been discharged in stable condition, he added.
"There was a poisoning and many children were injured," he said, adding the children were walking on their own or were being carried out by their parents and "have smiles on their faces."
"We had an incident where one of the staff in the kitchen used the cleaning solution bottle to pour water for some of the children," Keith Kearney, executive director of United Cerebral Palsy of Hudson County, which runs the day care center that is open to all community members and serves 65 children from infants to age 4, said.
"It was a repurposed plastic milk jug with a bleach water solution we use to wipe down surfaces. The label we had on the bottle wasn't large enough to guard against it," he said.
The children and staff were having a morning snack of water and fruit when a faint bleach smell was noticed and immediately reported by an adult staff member, Kearney said.
The 911 call kicked off a mass casualty emergency response by the hospital, which called in extra doctors and nurses to work closely with paramedics, police and fire units.
Soon after, some children started complaining of light-headedness, while others of upset stomachs, according to Agence France-Presse. They were given liquids like water and milk to dilute the poison rather than inducing vomiting "because it would burn on the way back up again," Rabson said.
However, the hospital visits were just a precaution since none of the preschoolers were reported to be injured.
"It was a mistake,'' said Kearney. "The bottle should have been labeled better, the container should not have been repurposed ... We have spoken to all our parents and they were very upset and we are as well. I've been here 16 years and nothing like this has ever happened."
He said he is having a meeting with parents tonight and will have one tomorrow as well. The kitchen worker has been fired, he said.
"The bleach was in a low concentration so it didn't cause any damage to the children," Jersey City Medical Center's Michael Bessette told CBS New York.
"They're obviously a little excited, they get a big field trip today," he added.
