A parent of a former Dairy Queen worker says employees were forced to eat ice cream that had been contaminated with cleaning solution. The strange incident resulted in the workers going to the emergency room for treatment, the parent claims.
Angela Patton says on Friday night (February 23), her 17-year-old daughter was called into work at the Campton, Kentucky, Dairy Queen for a mandatory meeting. During the meeting, her daughter and other workers were allegedly told to swallow the chemically contaminated soft serve whether they wished to do it or not.
A mother claims her 17-year-old daughter was forced to eat ice cream mixed with cleaning solution at a Dairy Queen in Campton, Kentucky
“They were told by the manager that whether or not they liked chocolate ice cream, they were going to eat it today,” Patton told the local CBS affiliate station WKYT.
“Oh, I was livid. I was livid,” she described the moment her daughter told her what had happened.
According to Patton, about eight Dairy Queen employees were forced to eat the contaminated food.
Some of them, including her daughter, quit the food service job due to the incident.
The teenager, who has since quit her job, says she and other employees were told to eat the contaminated food “whether or not they liked it”
Following the meeting, the workers, many of whom were underage, began feeling unwell and were rushed to the hospital.
“Some of the kids had complained that they had a burning sensation when they swallowed the ice cream,” the furious mother explained.
Corrosive substances such as bleach or oven and drain cleaners can cause severe burns to the esophagus and stomach, and even perforations that can be potentially fatal, the European Commission’s public health site states.
The most common symptoms following a corrosive ingestion are difficulty swallowing, feeding refusal, abdominal pain, and vomiting.
The damage they cause depends on the amount ingested, the contact time, the pH of the substance, and whether it is a solid or a liquid.
“Some of the kids had complained that they had a burning sensation when they swallowed the ice cream,” the furious mother said
The Wolfe County Sheriff’s Office says they’re currently investigating the situation.
Deputy Elijah Banks said: “We still have multiple people coming in to give statements, but as of now, it’s still under investigation.”
Banks said he was unable to discuss the incident further, given that juveniles were involved. No charges have been filed as of Tuesday (February 27), WKYT reported.
The issue is being investigated by the Wolfe County Sheriff’s Office
Still, Patton has expressed her intention to take legal action and has scheduled a meeting with a lawyer to hold the multinational fast-food chain’s manager accountable for what she says happened to her daughter.
“What they’ve done is not right,” she said.
A similar situation had legal consequences in New York when a woman, Kaitlyn Conley, was denied a retrial after being sentenced to 23 years in jail for poisoning and killing her boss using the common gout medicine Colchicine.
