1 dead, 2 hospitalized after seniors given dishwashing soap instead of juice

Authored by cbsnews.com and submitted by Adorable-Ganache6561
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San Mateo, Calif. — Police here are probing the circumstances surrounding the fatal poisoning of a senior care home resident with dishwashing soap that also hospitalized two other residents, CBS Bay Area reports.

A San Mateo police officer was dispatched Sunday night after the department received a report of a female being poisoned at the Atria Hillsdale care home facility. Police said they learned that three residents were hospitalized after ingesting toxic chemicals.

Police said one, a 93-year-old female, was pronounced dead at a local hospital. The other two remain hospitalized. Police didn't provide any information on their condition.

Detectives were investigating the case jointly with the California Department of Social Services Ombudsman. Police said Atria Hillsdale is cooperating with investigators.

Atria Hillsdale issued a statement to CBS Bay Area, confirming that the three residents drank dishwashing liquid after it was served to them as juice. The statement didn't provide details on how it happened. It said the workers involved have been suspended pending the outcome of the investigaiton:

"We can confirm three of our residents were recently transported to the hospital after mistakenly being served dishwashing liquid as drinking juice. We have been working with local authorities, who have informed us that one resident passed away. Our sincerest condolences are with the family.

"When this occurred, our staff immediately contacted authorities, and the residents were transported to the hospital for evaluation and treatment.

"We are conducting our own internal investigation, and the employees involved have been suspended until this investigation concludes. We will continue working with the police and Department of Social Services to fully review and assess the incident, after which we will take additional actions as needed. The safety and well-being of our residents remain our top priorities at all times. Out of respect for the people involved, we cannot comment further."

Neracca on August 30th, 2022 at 14:45 UTC »

And I bet that place was probably charging these people $5k a month or more for this privilege.

WolfThick on August 30th, 2022 at 13:35 UTC »

So I do pest control and I go into quite a few hospices I've gone into some that were horribly infested with cockroaches and seen some of the chemicals that they bought to try to alleviate the problem without professional help. They come in interesting bottles that are prohibited by law from being reused and have to be triple rinsed and punctured three times before disposal. I have seen these bottles being reused because they have built-in measuring. And one in particular a gentleman only hires people from Africa they speak little or no English and there are no warnings on the labels in their native language. They're stored with the dishwashing soap for dishes clothes cleaning it's all together in the same cabinet. I have removed the pesticides from several of these institutions without asking permission as they were being dangerously stored and out of date. I felt it was a moral obligation.

eyeball-owo on August 30th, 2022 at 11:39 UTC »

The liquid for the commercial dishwasher at my restaurant is bright pink and super caustic, I bet it was something like that.