Police in western Kentucky are investigating the death of an 8-year-old boy who died after eating strawberries acquired at a school fundraiser.
Law enforcement in the city of Madisonville, about 50 miles south of Evansville, Indiana, were called to a home on Friday morning regarding a boy who was unresponsive and not breathing. Officers arrived at the home and found the family had taken their son to the emergency room prior to their arrival, police said in a Facebook post.
The boy was pronounced dead at the hospital a short time later, authorities said. The boy's parents informed police he had consumed several strawberries from a school fundraiser the night prior.
While at the emergency room, police were informed by staff members that others had come to the hospital for treatment after reportedly consuming strawberries at the same fundraiser.
At some point that night, the boy began showing signs of an allergic reaction, including a rash. The family gave the child Benadryl, in an effort to make the symptoms subside, and soaked him in a bath, police said.
When the symptoms didn't go away, the family transported their son to the emergency room at around 10:30 p.m. Police said the family decided to leave the emergency room at around 1:24 a.m. and then returned home.
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As of Monday evening, why they left the emergency room remained unclear.
Once arriving home, the boy changed his clothes and went to bed. When his family tried to wake him up for school that morning, he was unresponsive, authorities said.
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A final autopsy report and toxicology results have yet to be released.
Following the boy's death, the Hopkins County Health Department issued a caution advisory urging residents not to eat straweberries purchased at a fundraiser for Madisonville North Hopkins High School and Hopkins County Central High School athletics.
"Currently, the Department of Public Health Environmentalists are taking samples of the strawberries to the state lab for testing," the health department said in a Facebook post on Monday morning. "Although, this incident could be unrelated, the decision has been made to exercise caution and advise not eating any of these strawberries."
The health department provided an update a few hours later, explaining the incident was believed to be "an isolated allergic reaction."
However, because the report was preliminary, people were still advised not to eat strawberries from the fundraiser.
