8-year-old boy dies after eating strawberries sold as school fundraiser

An 8-year-old Kentucky boy died Friday after he ate strawberries at a school fundraiser, according to the Madisonville Police Department.

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Police say they received a call around 6:30 a.m. Friday, of a child who was unresponsive and not breathing.

The family told police that their son had eaten several strawberries purchased from a school fundraiser the night before and he began showing signs of an allergic reaction, WFIE News 14 reported.

The child was given Benadryl for the rash he had developed, and he soaked in a bath, according to police.

When the child got worse, he was taken to the emergency room around 10:30 p.m. Thursday. His family took him home after several hours at the ER.

He was found unresponsive when he was checked on about 6:30 a.m. the following morning.

The boy has not been identified. Autopsy results are pending.

Police said that while they were at the emergency room staff there told them others had come in for treatment after eating strawberries at the same fundraiser, WYTK reported.

“While we were investigating, several staff at the hospital had advised that other people had come in to the hospital complaining of rashes and other ailments concurrent with some type of allergic reaction, and they had ate strawberries from this fundraiser,” the police department said.

On Friday, the health department issued a statement saying the medical examiner had concluded that the boy’s death looked to be an isolated incident of an allergic reaction.

After the young boy’s death, the Hopkins County Health Department issued a warning on social media to not eat any strawberries purchased at the school fundraisers in Hopkins County. However, Health Department Director Denise Beach said her department could not say that there was something wrong with the strawberries, only that people should hold off on eating them until the department got results back from samples of the strawberries that were sent for further testing.

“There could be other explanations, but with caution, we are issuing a statement asking people to not eat these strawberries.”

“Currently, the Department of Public Health Environmentalists are taking samples of the strawberries to the state lab for testing. Although this incident could be unrelated, the decision has been made to exercise caution and advise not eating any of these strawberries,” the Hopkins County Health Department wrote in a statement on its website.

“As of right now we have no reason to believe that fentanyl or any other type of narcotic is involved in this,” Madisonville Police Department Maj. Jason McKnight said.

According to a press release, the strawberries were purchased for fundraisers for Madisonville North Hopkins High School and Hopkins County Central High School athletics, People reported.

Madisonville North Hopkins High School distributed 443 flats of strawberries and Hopkins County Central High School distributed 535 flats. The strawberries came from Juicy Fruit LLC, Southern Grown and Sizemore Farms, News 14 reported.

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