Elijah’s Story

My sweet boy Elijah Morgan was only two years old when he got sick. When he first began showing symptoms, it was not that bad. He had diarrhea off and on a few times, but nothing worrisome. He was still playing, singing, dancing, and being his happy self. We had no idea how horrific it was going to get.

On Saturday November 30, 2024, Elijah woke up with bloody diarrhea. When we arrived at urgent care in Mexico, Missouri his diarrhea started increasing to about every five minutes. Once the urgent care doctor realized how often it was, he sent us to the emergency room at University Hospital in Columbia, Missouri, suspecting intussusception. At the ER, they did an X-ray and drew labs, which turned out fine, so they sent us home. After a couple hours of being home I called the hospital back and told them that I wasn’t comfortable with how much diarrhea he was having. He was lying on the couch barely moving. We brought him back to the ER and they admitted him to give fluids and do a stool sample. We were completely blindsided as to what happened next.

On Sunday December 1st, they came in and told us that Elijah had E.coli 0157:H7. Two days later, December 3rd, they told us that it had turned into Hemolytic Uremic Syndrome (HUS). His red blood cell count and platelets were dropping and his kidney function was declining. I had never felt more fear in my entire life. I couldn’t stand to watch my child suffer. He was in so much pain, confused, and just horribly sick.

On Thursday December 5th, they informed us that Elijah had only 5%-10% kidney function. My heart shattered. I was hoping so badly that he wouldn’t go into renal failure, but he did. He was placed on hemodialysis. Along with dialysis, he also received 2 blood transfusions. While hospitalized, he came down with parainfluenza and mycoplasma pneumonia, but recovered well from these. He endured severe edema along with pulmonary edema, which was slightly relieved with each dialysis session. Elijah had to have physical therapy to stand and walk again because of how severe this disease affected him.

On Friday December 20th, his last day of dialysis, we finally got to go home! When they told us we were going to be released I was so excited. I was very happy to leave, but at the same time filled with fear. Elijah left the hospital with only 10% of his kidney function. We were scheduled a couple days later to have a tunneled port placed so he could continue with dialysis, but his labs had slightly improved so we held off. They kept improving slightly each time we went back for labs and we thankfully ended up no longer needing to get it.

Three months later, I still have so many fears. I am still was terrified that I am going to hurt him by either feeding him the wrong food or that somehow he will get exposed to Shiga toxin-producing E.coli again.

While Elijah is much better now and back to playing and being my silly boy, he is still left with Chronic Kidney Disease Stage 3a. He is on a low sodium and low potassium diet. He also has to take blood pressure medication daily. We had to switch much of our life around, and while I am beyond thankful he is better, I know that it will never truly be over. This disease took so much from us. We can no longer stop on trips and get something quick to eat, and he can’t eat most of his favorite foods. HUS created a lasting fear and a constant concern about Elijah’s kidneys. As the years pass, his kidney function could begin to decline and someday he may need a kidney transplant. While rare, HUS is very real and very scary!