An Otis, Oregon restaurant is not the source of E. coli poisoning that has put a 5-year-old boy in the hospital with kidney failure and taken the life of his of 4-year-old friend, Lincoln County health officials said yesterday in a statement. All tests for E. coli on samples taken from the restaurant where the friends shared a turkey sandwich Labor Day weekend were negative.
Brad Sutton, 5, has been on dialysis for a week as he battles kidney failure from E. coli-induced hemolytic uremic syndrome (HUS) a complication affecting 10 to 15 percent of children with E. coli infections. “HUS is the most common cause of kidney injury among children,” said Fred Pritzker, a food safety attorney. About half of children with HUS develop kidney failure. This complication also causes seizure, stroke, coma and death. Serena suffered kidney failure, a stroke, and a seizure before she passed away last Tuesday.
Brad and Serena’s families are friends. The children were together the last two weekends of August in 2014. During that time, they attended a party where they swam in a pond fed by running irrigation water, ate watermelon and cake purchased from a Walmart and had exposure to a pet goat and other animals.
According to a story in the Oregonian, test results on droppings from the goat were positive for E. coli, but further testing is needed to determine if it is the same strain that sickened the two children. However, a third child who had no contact with the goat also got sick.
Aubrie Utter, 3, was also diagnosed with E. coli HUS kidney failure at the end of August. Her family did not know Bard and Serena’s family until the children were hospitalized. Aubrie spent a week in the hospital undergoing five blood transfusions before she was released. Her hospital room was just down the hall from Serena’s. Aubrie’s family spent time near the same river Serena and Brad visited on Labor Day weekend and also ate cake and watermelon from a Walmart before Aubrie became ill. No new cases have been reported in Lincoln County since this investigation began.
