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 A blue balloon announcing "Baby Boy" fluttered on
Saturday outside the home where the family has since returned after
Jessica Rosado, who was nine months pregnant when she arrived at the
hospital near her home in Tampa, gave birth after having labor
induced.
Rosado, her partner Ronnie Morales and her two young daughters fell
ill on Monday evening after eating some bottom round steak bought
from a local Wal-Mart, according to the Tampa Police Department.
It was the first meal they had cooked in their new home, having moved
in two days earlier, police said.
Morales was the first to feel sick, and Rosado drove him and her
daughters to St Joseph's Hospital after calling 911. He arrived
hallucinating and feeling dizzy and short of breath.
Rosado then began displaying the same symptoms, and was taken to a
hospital across the street where labor was induced and her baby
delivered. The two daughters, ages 6 and 7, were sickened a little
later that evening.
Police took samples of the food the family had been eating from the
home. The Hillsborough County medical examiner's office told police
on Friday that the steak was contaminated, and that tests showed the
presence of lysergic acid diethylamide, or LSD, police said.
Police also took the family's oven away for testing. Results from
toxicology tests on blood samples taken from the family may take
another three weeks, police said.
"There was enough of some type of substance to make all four members
of that family gravely ill," Jane Castor, Tampa's police chief, told
a press conference on Friday. "The family has no idea where this may
have come from."
She said that police had taken all the other bottom round steaks
from the Wal-Mart for testing but that this was believed to be an
isolated case, and that it was not clear whether a crime had been
committed.
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LSD is a fragile chemical, and can quickly degrade even at room
temperature or when exposed to light. If the test results are
correct, it remained unclear how a steak might be dosed with LSD in
a way that it could retain its potency even when cooked.
Police said they were still investigating how or why a steak
might end up contaminated in this way.
Wal-Mart said it was cooperating with the investigation by police
and both federal and state agricultural officials. A spokeswoman
pointed out that Wal-Mart receives its meat already prepared and
packaged from suppliers, and it was unclear at what point
contamination might have taken place.
Morales and the daughters were released from the hospital on
Wednesday, and Rosado and her newborn son, whom police described as
healthy, were released on Thursday.
"We're just very grateful that the family appears to be OK," Dianna
Gee, the Wal-Mart spokeswoman, said.
(Writing by Jonathan Allen; editing by
Barbara Goldberg and Marguerita Choy)
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