Kentucky 8-year-old dies after eating strawberries from school fundraiser

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Police in Kentucky are investigating after an 8-year-old boy died after eating strawberries from a school fundraiser.

The Madisonville Police Department said officers were called to a home around 6:30 a.m. Friday for an 8-year-old boy who was having trouble breathing and was unresponsive.

His parents told authorities that on Thursday he “had eaten several strawberries from a high school fundraiser the night before.”

On Thursday, the young boy began experiencing symptoms and his parents gave him benadryl and soaked him in a bath.

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Strawberries (Friso Gentsch/picture alliance via Getty Images)

After his symptoms continued to worsen, his family took him to a local emergency room around 10:30 p.m. Thursday, but brought him back home hours later.

Police said the family called authorities after they tried to wake him up for school Friday morning but found him unresponsive.

The health department warned the community not to eat any strawberries that we sold the Madisonville North Hopkins High School and Hopkins County Central High School athletics. (Google Maps)

After the boy’s death, the Hopkins County Health Department said that a preliminary autopsy report ruled that it was an “isolated allergic reaction.”

“Dr. Christopher Kiefer, Medical Examiner, said the incident involving strawberries looks like an isolated allergic reaction,” Denise Beach, the Director for the Hopkins County Health Department, said. “He relates that this is a preliminary report, so we still advise not eating the strawberries currently.”

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Authorities did not say if the boy had preexisting allergies to strawberries.

Harvested strawberries at KHM Strawberry and Jam farm in Cameron Highlands, Pahang, Malaysia. (Samsul Said/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

The department warned the community not to eat any strawberries that we sold the Madisonville North Hopkins High School and Hopkins County Central High School athletics.

The health department said that there were 443 flats distributed by North and 535 flats distributed by Central. The strawberries were distributed by Juicy Fruit LLC, Southern Grown and Sizemore Farms.

“Currently, the Department of Public Health Environmentalists are taking samples of the strawberries to the state lab for testing,” the health department said.

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The boy’s identity has not been released.

Fox News has reached out to Juicy Fruit LLC, Southern Grown and Sizemore Farms for comment.

Sarah Rumpf-Whitten is a breaking news writer for Fox News Digital and Fox Business. 

She is a native of Massachusetts and is based in Orlando, Florida.

Story tips and ideas can be sent to sarah.rumpf@fox.com and on X: @s_rumpfwhitten.