Kids at Jersey City daycare checked for bleach ingestion

JERSEY CITY (AP) -- More than two dozen children and two adults accidentally drank a mixture of bleach and water at a day care center Thursday and were briefly hospitalized.

Growing Tree Learning Center II in Jersey City (PIX 11)

A kitchen worker on her first day on the job at Growing Tree Learning Center II in Jersey City was giving students water when she mistakenly used a bottle that had water and a little bleach in it according to the Jersey Journal.

Executive Director Pete Kearney tells the newspaper the worker has been fired.

A spokesman for Jersey City Medical Center-Barnabas Health said the hospital received a call a few minutes before 11 a.m. Several ambulances were sent, and other emergency crews also responded.

"Somebody made a mistake and they were trying to give the children water but then they realized it was mixed with bleach," JCMC dispatcher Barbara Allen, who took the 911 call, told the Jersey Journal.

Hospital spokesman Mark Rabson said 28 3- and 4-year-olds and two adults were treated, most complaining of lightheadedness, mild nausea and stomachaches.

The hospital contacted a national poison control center for guidance and treated the patients by giving them liquids rather than inducing vomiting, as a precaution, Rabson said. All the children and adults had been released by 3 p.m.

A spokesman for the state Department of Children and Families, which licenses the center, said the agency is investigating.

Sandra Vasquez, the center's executive director, didn't immediately respond to a phone message Thursday afternoon.