Yew Shrubs Removed From Kips Bay Playground After Girl Eats Toxic Berry

NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) -- The yew shrubs have been removed from a park in Kips Bay, after a 2-year-old girl spent seven hours in the emergency room when she ate a berry from one of them.

The shrubs had been growing at the Asser Levy Playground on 23rd Street near the FDR Drive. They were dug up and removed this weekend.

Back in September, the Joy Vernon saw yew berries in the water fountain at the playground and ate one. Her father was standing just a few feet away and called her mother, Natalie Gruppuso, who searched the internet and realized it was a poisonous yew berry.

She immediately called poison control.

"Poison control told us that they are quite toxic, can cause cardiac arrest and are lethal. So I met them on the way to NYU Hospital and we took her to the emergency room," Gruppuso told CBS2 last week.

Vernon was in the emergency room for seven hours before doctors determined she was not poisoned.

Gruppuso said doctors told her the toddler was lucky she didn't ingest more.

The New York City Department of Parks and Recreation said it does not plant yew shrubs in playgrounds and this is the first incident of its kind in the city, and it is "taking the matter seriously and reviewing the next best steps for addressing this species when found in playgrounds."

Joy's mother is now on a mission to get all yew shrubs moved from New York City parks.