LITTLE ROCK, Ark. — Ten children at an Arkansas day-care center drank windshield wiper fluid after the owner served it from a container mistaken for Kool-Aid and placed in a refrigerator, authorities said Friday.
The day-care owner voluntarily surrendered her state license Friday.
Doctors estimate the children, ages 2 to 7, drank about an ounce of the blue fluid late Thursday afternoon before realizing it tasted wrong, said Laura James, a pediatric pharmacologist and toxicologist at Arkansas Children’s Hospital.
Only one child remained hospitalized Friday, in good condition, after blood samples showed “measurable levels” of methanol, a highly toxic alcohol that can induce comas and cause blindness, officials said.
The day-care owner, Carolyn Bynum, bought the windshield wiper fluid with other items on a recent shopping trip, James told The Associated Press.
“It was just a mistake, she says. She says it was just a horrible mistake,” said Julie Munsell, spokeswoman for the state Department of Human Services.
