Seventeen people were sent to the hospital after ingesting an unknown substance during a quinceñera Saturday night at the Women’s Building in the Mission District, according to the San Francisco Fire Department. The youngest was a six-year-old.
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A mysterious candy ruined a festive Quinceanera in San Francisco and hospitalized at least 14 people, including seven children, who ate the unidentified substance, according to local reports.
The Department of Public Health is urging others who attended the party and have remaining edible sweets to discard them.
The Department of Public Health has not yet done a final analysis of the gummy ring sweets, but blood work of the patients revealed levels of THC, the psychoactive component of marijuana. The symptoms included heart palpitations, shortness of breath, anxiety and in some cases a swollen tongue and rash. The candy did not have any labels or markings that investigators could use to trace where it came from, Baxter said. The San Francisco Department of Public Health said they were not only testing the candy, but other items that were consumed at the party.
“A situation like this, where they were consumed by unsuspecting people, and many children, is greatly concerning”. “Of the patients that were evaluated, 10 were male and 9 were female”. Nineteen people were taken to hospitals, 13 of them 18 years old or younger, health officials said. Test results by the state Poison Control Center on the gummies themselves are pending.
The city’s Public Health Department said the quinceañera, a party traditionally celebrating the 15th birthday of Latinas, had been catered by an Oakland company.
“The question remains, where did the sweets come from?” said Aragon. “We don’t know but we’re investigating that”, San Francisco Police Department Sergeant Michael Andraychak told NBC.
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“Anyone who attended the quinceañera and may have taken some of the gummy rings is urged to discard them immediately”, Tomas Aragon, a physician and health officer, said in a statement.
