Summary

• A high school freshman in Colorado was hospitalized due to a rare and dangerous complication of E. coli poisoning.

• Kamberlyn Bowler, 15, said she ate McDonald’s Quarter Pounders in the days before she got sick.

• At least 75 people were infected with E. coli in the outbreak, which McDonald’s said was likely linked to sliced ​​onions served in Quarter Pounders.

In the days before she got sick, Kamberlyn Bowler went to McDonald’s several times for her favorite meal: the Quarter Pounder with cheese and extra pickles. The previously healthy and active 15-year-old is now hospitalized and battling kidney failure, a rare and potentially life-threatening complication of E. coli poisoning.

Kamberlyn, of Grand Junction, Colorado, is one of dozens of people who say they got sick after eating McDonald’s Quarter Pounders. according to Centers for Disease Control and PreventionAt least 75 people in 13 states were infected with E. coli after meals at the fast food chain. One person died.

McDonald’s says most likely source of contamination Quarter Pounders served sliced ​​onions. The restaurant giant removed onions from its menu. Onion distributor California-based Taylor Farms said no specific ingredient had been confirmed as the source of the outbreak, but Yellow onions “preemptively recalled” from Colorado facility Distributes products to food service customers.

In her first interview about her ordeal, Kamberlyn, a high school freshman, wiped away tears as she summed up how the past few weeks have felt: “It’s not fun,” she said via Zoom from her hospital room on Monday afternoon.

Kamberlyn’s mother, Brittany Randall, said her daughter’s symptoms started this month with a fever and stomach pain. Neither Kamberlyn nor Randall were too worried at first.

“We were both thinking I had a fever, something like the flu, an upset stomach,” Kamberlyn said. “But then I started vomiting and had diarrhea and it was bloody, so it scared me.”

Randall said he took Kamberlyn to the doctor and then to the emergency room where he got some scans, which didn’t show anything significant. But Kamberlyn did not recover at home.

“I think it was the sixth day that he said: ‘Something’s not right. I don’t feel well. I need to go back to the hospital,’” Randall said.

This time, tests showed something alarming: Kamberlyn had an E. coli infection so severe she was suffering from kidney failure. He was flown to Children’s Hospital Colorado outside Denver on October 18 and has remained there ever since.

“It’s definitely been a roller-coaster from the moment we got here until now. “Every day, new tests or new things come up or he watches his body stop working,” Randall said.

Kamberlyn was diagnosed with enterohemorrhagic Escherichia coli-associated hemolytic uremic syndrome, or HUS, which can occur when E. coli bacteria attack the kidneys. He received many dialysis treatments in the hospital.

Randall said her daughter’s kidneys are showing “some signs” of working again, but it’s unclear how much permanent damage there will be.

“We’re not really sure what his progression is going to look like,” he said. “He’ll probably need another round of dialysis. We’re hoping this will be the last one, but we also don’t know, and we don’t know if there will be problems in the future.”

Kamberlyn and Randall plan to sue McDonald’s and have hired an attorney who has already filed two lawsuits on behalf of other customers. But for now, they are focused on Kamberlyn’s recovery.

In most people infected with E. coli, symptoms usually begin three to four days after consuming contaminated food and include severe stomach cramps, diarrhea, and vomiting. According to HKM. Most infected people recover within a week without requiring treatment.

But a very small percentage of patients – estimates of how many have changed, with some I calculate it as a low rate of 2% — Continue to develop HUS.

Dr., chief epidemiologist at UF Health Shands Hospital in Florida, who did not treat Kamberlyn. Nicole Iovine said people who are very young or very old are most susceptible to HUS.

“This is a rare complication, but it is certainly something that can occur. Unfortunately, some people develop reduced kidney function or permanent kidney failure,” he said.

Before contracting E. coli, Kamberlyn had no health problems and was exercising and playing softball regularly, Iovine said; These were all factors that would help him as he tried to recover from HUS, Iovine said.

“It’s not predictable, and the patient’s pre-existing health is really important,” he said.

The experience was terrifying for Randall, who said he was grateful that Kamberlyn realized something was very wrong.

“If he had waited, if I had waited longer, he wouldn’t be here right now,” Randall said. “He went from being super healthy and having no problems to having kidney damage probably his whole life.”

Hearing reports like Kamberlyn’s is “devastating for us,” McDonald’s said in an email.

“We know that people and families have been significantly impacted and the well-being of our customers is extremely important to us,” the email said.

In a video released Sunday, McDonald’s USA President Joe Erlinger He promised to regain customers’ trust.

“On behalf of the McDonald’s system, I want you to hear this from me: We are sorry,” he said in a video released Sunday. “For affected customers, I promise we will get this right, led by our values.”

Ron Simon, a national food poisoning attorney who represents Kamberlyn and 32 other victims of the McDonald’s E. coli outbreak in 10 states, said he has received hundreds of calls from people since news of the outbreak spread.

“There will be many more cases than 75 in this outbreak,” he said, referring to the CDC’s latest case count. “Undoubtedly much more.”

Simon said he plans to sue Kamberlyn this week. He said nine of the people he represented were hospitalized and another had HUS.

“Hopefully, through these lawsuits and others, we can find out exactly where the fault is so we can fix the problem and make sure it doesn’t happen to anyone else,” he said.