Local Wisconsin Resident Shares Heartbreaking Story:

With the fear of the novel Coronavirus causing consumers to stock up on food and supplies and prepare food at home during the coronavirus pandemic, food safety is paramount.

Older adults, pregnant moms, babies, small children, and immune-compromised individuals are at greater risk to contract a foodborne illness from improperly prepared or stored foods. Mitzi Baum, CEO of STOP Foodborne Illness, reminds us, “We are all susceptible to the dangerous foodborne illnesses that cause 3,000 to die each year with another 128,000 hospitalized, many of whom continue to suffer from on-going consequences including heart disease, diabetes, gastro issues, and stress disorders.”

With statistics at the ready, it is easy to communicate the severity and prevalence of foodborne illnesses across the country. However, it is also easy to forget that each number represents a human affected by foodborne illness. One of these numbers is Katie from Franklin, Wisconsin, a victim of foodborne illness in 2016 who still lives with the consequences of the infection.

Kindergarten teacher Katie and her husband Keith were looking forward to their 10-year anniversary in June of 2016. They would be celebrating with a trip to the Dominican Republic, a week’s vacation without the kids. But when Katie told her husband to take her to the ER one Tuesday evening, they had no idea how far off track their lives would derail. Katie had dealt with diarrhea for two days straight, vomiting intermittently, when she was admitted to the hospital and administered fluids. Test results revealed the nightmare she didn’t realize was possible: She was infected with E. coli.

Escherichia coli (commonly abbreviated as E. coli) are a large and diverse group of Gram-negative, bacilli bacteria that normally live in the intestines of people and animals. Most E. coli are harmless and actually are an important part of a healthy human intestinal tract. However, some E. coli are pathogenic, meaning they can cause illness, either diarrhea or illness outside of the intestinal tract. Pathogenic E. coli strains are categorized into pathotypes. Six pathotypes are associated with diarrhea and collectively are referred to as diarrheagenic E. coli. The types of E. coli that can cause diarrhea can be transmitted through contaminated water or food, or through contact with animals or persons.

E. coli can live in the intestines of healthy cattle. Meat can become contaminated during slaughter, and the bacteria can be thoroughly mixed into beef when it is ground. Bacteria present on the cow’s udders or on equipment may get into unpasteurized milk. Eating meat, especially ground beef that has not been cooked sufficiently to kill E. coli can cause infection.

Though she has her suspicions, Katie is still unsure what exactly she ate that made her so sick. When her kidneys began shutting down, they moved her to the ICU for dialysis. However, as they tried to insert the port into her chest, she had a heart attack, the toxins in her kidneys traveling up to her heart and stopping it. Fifteen minutes passed before her heart started beating again. Over the course of five weeks spent in the ICU, Katie was given sedatives, a ventilator, several units of blood, a gallbladder drainage tube, more drainage of the fluids around her heart and lungs, two weeks of dialysis, and a tracheostomy to help with her labored breathing.

Recovering from E. coli proved to be just as difficult as having the actual infection. Katie had to use a ventilator for four weeks, so her muscles were severely weakened. She could barely breathe on her own. “At first, I couldn’t even hold a pen to write, or move my own legs,” Katie recalls. Physical therapy helped her regain some of her muscle function, but she still had difficulty speaking with the trach. Eventually, speech therapy enabled her to learn how to speak with a trach, which she remembers as the beginning of the slow improvement of each passing day. “At first, as my brain slowly started waking up, I couldn’t figure out simple things like how to work my phone, or how to tell time,” Katie remembers. “As days passed, every day got better.”

Foodborne illnesses like E. coli leave mental and physical scars for years to come, even after they have been diagnosed and treated. “Even though I was home, the [physical therapy] and [occupational therapy] continued a few times a week, for a few more months,” Katie says. “I ended up taking the year off teaching in order to heal physically and mentally. I also spent many months meeting with a counselor and processing all I had gone through.” Today, Katie has recovered from her battle with E coli. As an advocate for food safety, Katie does not want anyone to ever go through the horrors she has.

Mitzi Baum continues, “There are small, basic things every person can do—like washing their hands with soap and water before and after handling food—that can make all the difference in preventing illness from contaminated food.” Please visit www.stopfoodborneillness.org/awareness for more information on food safety and illness prevention. The website provides resources such as guidelines for safe food cooking and storage, food recall alerts, information on food poisoning, and descriptions of multiple foodborne illnesses and their impact on both the individual and the public health.

STOP Foodborne Illness is the only national nonprofit public health organization whose mission is to support and engage people directly impacted by foodborne illness and mobilize them to help prevent illness and death by driving change through advocacy, collaboration and innovation. https://stopfoodborneillness.org/