Eleven children and one adult were rushed to the hospital in Warren, Michigan, on Monday, May 7, after they became ill inside a house.
Fire crews placed the children inside ambulances on Monday after taking them from the home.
Sources told Local 4 that the house was filled with feces.
A neighbor told Fox2 Detroit that a little girl ran to her house, asking to use her phone.
The girl told her that her brother was choking and couldn’t breathe.
“I gave her the phone and said, ‘Is everything all right?’ She said, ‘My brother can’t breathe.’ I asked how old he was; she said 6. I said, ‘Well, I’m a nurse; let me see him,” Wanda Lee told Fox2.
“Can’t breathe? It’s dangerous; it’s scary. And no adults anywhere,” Lee told the station.
Police found that 11 children under the age of 10 were very ill, likely poisoned by something in the house.
Janique Thomas told Local 4 that her sister was watching the children when they started getting sick.
“I have no idea what’s going on,” Thomas said.
“Really had me concerned when you see 2- to 5-year-olds being carried on a stretcher, screaming. One of the little boys was terrified. He couldn’t have been over 3 or 4, and he doesn’t know what’s going on,” said Robert Bauss, a local, according to the station.
Police, emergency workers, and fire HAZMAT crews converged on the home.
“They weren’t well taken care of, from what I could see and from on the outside. They were running around all day; no shoes; dirty clothes; no supervision,” Bauss told the station.
Fox2 reported that two different mothers live there with 11 children. Neighbors said that they’ve only been there for about three weeks, but they said it’s clear the children were being taken care of properly.
Both mothers will likely face abuse and neglect charges, police told the Fox affiliate.
“All of the kids are stable, and right now, we’re just investigating to see if we can determine what may have caused this illness at this time,” Warren Fire Commissioner Wilburt McAdams said, Local 4 reported.
Officials added that a 3-month-old child was listed in critical condition.
