Poplar Bluff woman who drank tea laced with cleaning solution doing well

POPLAR BLUFF, Mo.-- The prognosis is good for a former Poplar Bluff woman who was critically injured earlier this month when she drank sweet tea laced with a highly toxic industrial cleaning solution at a Utah restaurant.

Jan Harding and her husband, Jim, who was the pastor at Temple Baptist Church from 1977 to 1982, were dining at Dickey's Barbecue Pit in South Jordan, Utah, after church Aug. 10 when she filled a cup with sweet tea from a self-serve beverage station.

The 67-year-old grandmother took one sip before spitting it out and exclaiming to her husband: "I think I just drank acid."

The tea was laced with a highly toxic industrial cleaning solution meant for degreasing deep fryers. Investigators have reported a restaurant worker had mistaken the cleaning product for sugar and accidentally mixed large quantities of it into the ice-tea dispenser.

That mix up sent Harding to a Salt Lake City, Utah, hospital, where she was in critical condition four days later. Unable to talk and fighting for her life, she was in the facility's burn unit.

"They actually called us for prayer the Sunday evening after it happened Sunday afternoon," said Steve Patterson, Temple Baptist's current pastor. "They called one of their friends in town. ... He called me."

The first "many, many days, they just weren't sure which way it would go ..." Patterson said.

Last week, Patterson spoke to the Hardings' daughter.

"They thought the big problem [would be] a great deal of damage to the esophagus, and when they went in with the scope, the damage was not anything like they anticipated.

"It was much better. The prognosis is very good."

Patterson said Jan Harding might have some lingering issues down the line, but is doing better than expected.

Jan Harding, he said, had been on a ventilator, but she has come off that and is breathing on her own.

Patterson said she also has been up walking, and doctors are talking about her being released from the hospital at a future date.

"It just looks a whole lot more positive than what they thought it ever would," Patterson said.

Patterson said he was a member of Temple Baptist while Jim Harding was the church's pastor and considers the couple good friends.

"They are super people," said Patterson, who attended a celebration when the couple retired about three years ago. Jim Harding, he said, retired as a pastor, while his wife retired as a schoolteacher.

Patterson said the Hardings have been in Utah since 1984.

Jim Harding, Patterson said, pastored several churches in that area and served a number of years as the executive director of the Southern Baptist Convention for Utah and Idaho.

The Associated Press contributed to this story.