The Health Impacts
One Family's Experience | Spinach Recall | Kassidy’s Story
E. coli O157:H7 infection: One Family’s Experience
Brigitte Robert was nine months pregnant with her second child when her two-year-old son Nathan Filadelfi suffered a gastrointestinal illness in 1998. Brigitte was a paediatric nurse by training, so she felt comfortable monitoring Nathan at home. One and a half weeks later, there was blood in Nathan’s stool and his normally sunny demeanor turned to irritability and clinginess. Brigitte took Nathan to a hospital in Montreal, where he was admitted and put on IV fluid to rehydrate him. Blood tests showed that Nathan’s haemoglobin was starting to go down. Haemoglobin carries oxygen around the body through the red blood cells. By the end of the second day in hospital, Nathan was diagnosed with Hemolytic Uremic Syndrome (HUS).
Another day passed in the hospital and Nathan’s haemoglobin went down dramatically. A surgical consult was immediately ordered with the health professionals expecting a bowel problem. Later that day, Nathan’s kidneys started to shut down, and the next day they failed completely. Nathan was rushed to surgery, where a peritoneal dialysis tube was inserted into his abdominal cavity for kidney dialysis round-the-clock. Dialysis is a treatment that cleans the blood and removes wastes and excess water from the body. Normally, healthy kidneys do this work.
Brigitte’s husband James stayed with Nathan day and night while Brigitte went home to rest. She delivered their second son, Dylan, a few days later at another Montreal hospital, with the help of two sisters-in-law.
“The morning of the surgery was hardest,” said Brigitte. “It was a stressful time. Having a newborn meant that we didn’t have time to think about how frightening it was. We just took things day by day.”
Nathan remained on dialysis for two weeks before his kidney functions totally returned. He was allowed to go home in the third week. He continued to have a tube in place for one month after being discharged, with Brigitte responsible for dressing changes. Regular follow-up visits to the nephrologist and blood tests occurred six months later and again at one year. Yearly visits eventually led to an “all-clear” on Nathan’s health when he was five years of age.
“At the time this happened, my husband and I were extremely overwhelmed. It was hell,” said Brigitte. “The whole family, however, was there to support us and it was a difficult process but we made it.”
At ten years of age, Nathan is—by all appearances—a normal child. Although he has scars from where the dialysis tubes were inserted, he is healthy and well. He plays soccer and hockey year-round. He gets 95% in math without studying. Brigitte says if anything, the incident made him more spoiled than his siblings due to the extra attention he received during his hospitalization and in the years that followed.
The source of Nathan’s infection was never found. Due to his dehydration and disease progression when he was admitted to the hospital, health professionals were unable to collect a proper sample for culturing. In terms of how the family has been affected, Brigitte says they never eat hamburger outside their home. Otherwise, they pretty much eat the way they always have, except they are more careful about washing fruits and vegetables and other foods.
“We didn’t know that E. coli could affect us so much,” says Brigitte. “ We try not to live in fear, but we are careful.”
Links & Resources:
