St. Louis Co., Missouri E. coli Outbreak
St. Louis County, Missouri, is the center of a foodborne E. coli outbreak that has sickened 14 people in the past week, including 23-year-old Jasmine Bell. Health officials are scrambling to determine the source and urge parents to take any child with bloody diarrhea directly to a hospital emergency room for treatment and testing.
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James Bell of Florissant, Missouri, told a reporter that Jasmine, his daughter, has been hospitalized since Saturday with what hospital and health officials told him was a confirmed E. coli infection. Jasmine Bell started feeling sick during the middle of last week.
James Bell said his daughter is recovering after receiving fluids and medication and may be released soon from Christian Hospital in north St. Louis County. He said she works at a downtown St. Louis deli.
St. Louis area physicians have been alerted to the outbreak and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has been notified.
E. coli poisoning from food can be a life-threatening experience, especially in children under 5 years of age, the elderly and others who have weakened immune systems. Bloody diarrhea and painful cramps are symptoms of the disease.
Feared complications of E. coli include hemolytic uremic syndrome (HUS) or TTP HUS, thrombotic thrombocytopenic purpura, where toxins released from E. coli organisms attack a person's red blood cells. Kidney failure, stroke, heart attacks, central nervous system disorders (including paralysis) and brain injuries can result and even a person with a mild case of E. coli can be at long-term risk for hypertension and vascular injury.
National food safety law firm PritzkerOlsen, P.A., has assigned an E. coli lawyer to investigate the St. Louis outbreak and the firm is accepting cases for a possible St. Louis E. coli lawsuit. Our legal group currently represents E. coli victims and is one of the very few law firms in the country practicing extensively in the area of foodborne illness litigation. Free case consultations are available at 1-888-377-8900 (Toll Free) or submit your contact information online and an attorney will call you.
Source: St. Louis Post Dispatch, KTVI-Fox2
