MONROE, Ga.,None — Church members in Walton County say dozens of people got violently ill at a Sunday pot-luck service.
"Five o'clock, everybody started dropping like flies," Edwin Smith told Chanel 2's Linda Stouffer.
Smith and his wife are both sick and said the digestive disruption was excruciating. "Last night was the most awful pain I ever had in my life. I thought I would die," Smith said.
The Solid Rock Ministries members met at a room at Criswell Park in Monroe.
When people started to get sick, volunteers drove them to the hospital. Smith said someone loaded him into the back of a truck.
David Peal was there, but did not get sick. "There was people outside puking, there was people inside puking. I mean, they were everywhere," Peal said.
Walton Regional Medical Center in Monroe said they treated 24 people and admitted seven. They have sent cultures and samples to a state lab for analysis.
Stouffer called the state, local and regional public health offices, but they have not provided information about the outbreak or investigation.
Several people at the service think the actual number of people sickened could be closer to 40 because not everyone went to the emergency room.
Several family members called to tell Stouffer the hospital seemed overwhelmed by all the sick people.
Some members said they were still throwing up in the ER waiting room. They told Channel 2 staff didn't take their concerns seriously enough.
Relative Michael Jones said, "They didn't even test or anything. They said it was a bug everybody got. I don't believe it at all. "
Although some at the party suspect spoiled potato salad, Michael Jones and his relatives think it could have been something else.
"Everybody we've talked to has either had the ice or the water. I want them to go over to Criswell and actually test the water and see if it might be something in the water," Jones said.
Smith told Stouffer he ate a little bit of everything people brought to the dinner. He said he's sad the church service ended in a hurry.
"Satan-- he steps in any way he can to destroy," Smith said.