GRANTS PASS, Ore.- A Josephine County child has died after complications with E. coli.
Earlier this month, NBC5 reported that a young local boy named Hayden was found by his mother vomiting blood.
Once in the hospital, it was discovered that his kidneys began to shut down from an E. coli infection.
Medford Gastroenterologist Dr. Peter Adesman says everyone has E. coli in their gut, but it’s a specific strand that can be deadly.
“E. coli 0157 lives harmlessly in animals and that could be deadly to humans. That E. coli can be acquired through meats that aren’t well cooked, animals that are slaughtered improperly, more likely to be seen in hamburgers, where you have a collection of cows,” Dr. Adesman said.
Soon after, Hayden’s five-year-old sister, Scarlet, joined him in the Portland hospital, also with an E. coli infection.
Though they caught the infection early, Scarlet developed HUS, a group of blood disorders, and had to get her colon removed.
“Hemolytic–uremic syndrome, that can kill kidneys and, you know, more often than not, you can put patients on dialysis and keep them alive, but then when multiple organs start to fail, that becomes a problem,” Dr. Adesman explained.
Sadly, Scarlet passed away on Tuesday.
Scarlet and Hayden’s mother, Lara Cook, spoke with NBC5 when her son first got sick.
“I have a five-year-old daughter as well, but its- never had anything like that happen to her. I knew something wasn’t right. My kids barely get sick in general, so it was crazy. It happens so fast. The night before we came here, he was drinking water, he was peeing, but by the next morning he was in kidney failure. It happens that quick,” Cook said.
Dr. Adesman says an E. coli infection isn’t subtle, with signs like abdominal pain, fever, chills, and bloody diarrhea.
He says even though it can be a severe infection, it’s rare to die from E. coli.
“If it’s E. coli 0157H7, you really want to avoid antibiotics. A massive kill of that organism with antibiotics releases all those endotoxins and the patients get incredibly ill,” Dr. Adesman said.
Josephine County Public Health says it is investigating local E. coli cases.
It does not believe the exposure is liked to any business, park, or recreational body of water.
Cook says she was trying to figure out how this happened.
“I’m in contact with the Oregon health department and they’re talking to me about everything he’s ate, anywhere we’ve shopped, all that so we can get the word out and, like, get things tested to see, you know, where he got it so other kids don’t go through this,” Cook said.
Thankfully, Hayden is starting to recover from his own infection.
Dr. Adesman says it’s surprising the kids got sick, but not the parents.
“It’s going to take a lot of epidemiologic work to try to identify what the kids had that the parents didn’t,” Dr. Adesman said.
Those interested in supporting the family can head to their GoFundMe.
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