Tampa Police have opened an investigation after a family of four, including a pregnant woman and two young children, were hospitalized Monday night after eating meat contaminated with the drug LSD.
CBS News reported that 24-year-old Ronnie Morales began complaining about feeling sick after dinner and was driven to St. Joseph's Hospital, by girlfriend, 31-year-old Jessica Rosado, who later fell ill herself.
Doctors induced labor, and Rosado gave birth to a healthy baby boy. But the situation worsened as Rosado's young daughters, Elyana Serrano and Rayna Serrano, also got sick and reportedly began hallucinating. Tampa Police Chief Jane Castor said that family had multiple symptoms.
"It was the physical symptoms that they had, which included hallucinations, dizziness, rapid heart rate and difficulty breathing," Castor said.
All victims, along with Ronnie Morales, received medical treatment. The entire family, including Rosado and her baby boy, were eventually released from the hospital in good condition on Thursday (some reports state the family was released on Wednesday).
The Hillsborough County Medical Examiner's Office reported Friday that the meat consumed by the family had been contaminated with the hallucinogenic drug. Tampa Police are currently investigating how LSD could have made its way into the meat. The family reportedly had no idea they had been poisoned until they felt ill.
"The family has no idea where this may have come from. And there's no indication of any involvement on the part of the family," Castor said.
The meat was purchased at the Wal-Mart in Tampa. CBS News reported that the store has since removed the meat from their shelves. Walmart spokesperson Dianna Gee said the meat was thin-cut bottom round steak made by a supplier, Cargill.
Walmart also released a statement in regard to the incident:
"Like everyone else in the community, we are deeply disturbed about this situation and we are taking it very seriously. We want answers and we're committed to working with officials to get to the bottom of this.
We know our customers expect safe, quality food and we require our suppliers to meet the highest of food safety standards. It's unclear where and how the food was tampered with or if the tampering occurred after purchase. However, out of an abundance of caution, we have pulled the remaining product from the store.
We have been in touch with our supplier and they tell us they have no reports of similar incidents. We are also reviewing our store's surveillance video to see if we can find any information that might assist in the investigation. At this point, we're not aware of any suspicious activity."
