HOPEWELL, Va. (WRIC) — Seven children were rushed to the hospital Wednesday, after taking what officials believe to be a prescription medication at a home off of 100 South 16th Avenue in Hopewell.

Hopewell Police said that three of the children — a one-year-old, a two-year-old, and a three-year-old — are in serious condition, “They are expected to recover, but because they don’t know exactly how much of the prescription medication they ingested… so they are having a harder time processing and metabolizing [the drug].”

Police said the other four children are expected to be okay.

Police said the mother watching the children called Hopewell Fire and EMS when she realized the children, “weren’t acting right.”

According to police, when the fire department arrived they immediately found four children — a one-year-old, a two-year-old, a three-year-old and a four-year-old — lethargic and unresponsive, but breathing. The other three children were later found in the house, and all were taken to Chippenham Hospital.

The fire department contacted Hopewell Police under the impression that an overdose or poisoning had occurred.

Officials said that a mother of three dropped off her children to be babysat by a mother of four children. Police said, at some point, the mother babysitting left the children to go to the store.

The mother told Hopewell PD that she told a man that was in the home that she was leaving, but said that it may not have been clearly instructed to watch the children while she was away — according to police. Police have not clarified whether or not the children were home alone.

Police said that when the woman got back to the house, she noticed that the children were acting strange, but did not immediately think anything of it. According to police, she then sensed that something was seriously wrong, and saw an empty prescription bottle lying on the floor that she realized the children must have gotten into.

Police have not been able to figure out where the prescription bottle came from, or how the children came to get their hands on it. According to officials, the prescription was not immediately identifiable, as it was an old bottle and the label had been rubbed off.

Police said that they did contact Child Protective Services. The Commonwealth Attorney’s Office was also contacted in the case that charges are filed.