A story in The Denver Post gives a glimpse into the pain suffered by one small victim of the Salmonella outbreak linked to the Alamosa, Colorado, water system. At least 237 residents have reported experiencing symptoms of Salmonella. There have been 72 lab-confirmed cases.

According to The Denver Post story, Miya Spangler, one of the lab-confirmed cases, became ill last Tuesday:

"Last Tuesday she woke up after midnight crying. She had a really high fever and bad diarrhea," said Miya's mother, 20-year-old Amanda Spangler.
"I had a really bad feeling about it," she said.

She took her daughter to the doctor the day officials realized they were in the grip of a salmonella outbreak caused by contaminated city drinking water.

"I felt terrible because I gave her the bottle, the formula, that made her sick," Amanda said. "For two days she had no expression on her face. She just lay there."

Miya's father, Joey, said that for part of her week-long illness his daughter was either asleep or crying.

The water was bad, so her parents couldn't bathe her to bring down her temperature, which her mother said topped out at 105.9 degrees.

The baby had a terrible rash. She threw up. She had blood in her stool, her mother said.

Posted March 2008.

Labels: Colorado, Colorado outbreak, Salmonella, symptoms

What to Do if Someone in Your Family Ate Some Recalled Totino’s or Jeno’s Pizza

If someone in your family ate some recalled Totino’s or Jeno’s pizza, you will need to watch for symptoms of E. coli for at most 10 days after consumption of the pizza. The incubation period for E. coli O157:H7 is usually between 3 and 4 days, but it can take as long as 10 days for E. coli symptoms to manifest.

Symptoms of E. coli O157:H7 include abdominal cramping, watery / bloody diarrhea, nausea and sometimes a fever. Even “mild” cases of E. coli O157:H7 will be noticeably different from the flu. The pain is intense and the diarrhea can be explosive. If you get E. coli, it will be one of the worst experiences of your life.

[A woman who works at our firm makes her children guzzle down cranberry juice for days if she thinks they have eaten a product that may be contaminated with E. coli. There is some scientific evidence to support the theory that cranberry juice may be able to prevent an E. coli infection, but we do not know of any published research on the amount and concentration of cranberry juice that would be necessary to make a difference.]

If anyone in your family experiences E. coli symptoms, especially the bloody diarrhea, seek medical attention immediately and tell them about the exposure to the potentially contaminated Jeno’s or Totino’s pizza. Special tests will need to be done to determine if the E. coli infection is E. coli O157:H7, and further testing will need to be done if E. coli O157:H7 is involved to determine if the DNA fingerprint of the bacteria matches the Jeno’s-Totino’s-outbreak strain of E. coli O157:H7. Contact an E. coli lawyer at our office if there is an E. coli O157:H7 diagnosis.

Please note what the CDC has to say about treatment of an E. coli O157:H7 infection:

Antibiotics should not be used to treat this infection, and it is thought that treatment with some antibiotics could lead to kidney complications. Antidiarrheal agents, such as loperamide (Imodium®), should also be avoided.

Your doctor should know this information.

Labels: cranberry juice cocktail, pizza, symptoms