Kamberlyn’s Story

Kamberlyn is a 15-year-old freshman in Grand Junction, Colorado. She was almost finished playing her first of high school softball.  Kamberlyn and her boyfriend went to a school football game.  During halftime they walked across the street to get McDonald’s. She ordered a quarter pounder with cheese and extra pickles.

A few days later, we were headed to watch a varsity softball game. We stopped at McDonald’s and she ordered the same thing she had after the football game. When we got to the game, she said “Mom I don’t feel well, can we go home.” I could visibly see that she was ill; she had a fever and was hot to the touch.  Over the following days she just got worse.  The vomiting and bloody diarrhea began. She was unable to keep anything down for almost a week.

On October 11th 2024, I took her to our family doctor.  The doctor sent us to the emergency room thinking she was experiencing complications with appendicitis. When we arrived at the ER, the doctor never even touched her to feel her stomach.  She ordered an ultrasound and nothing looked abnormal. They started her on fluids because she was severely dehydrated, and did a blood test. I insisted that we do an MRI which showed her colon was inflamed. Their diagnosis was severe gastritis. They sent Kamberlyn home instructing us to give her lots of fluids. On the October 17th, we returned to the emergency room.  They immediately put her on fluids, and did a blood draw. They also ordered a stool test. When they returned, they said something was wrong with her blood test compared to the blood draw a few days prior. They also said he stool test came back positive for E.coli 0157:H7.
When I heard of HUS (Hemolytic Uremic Syndrome) and kidney failure, I had no idea what this even meant. I didn’t even understand anything they were saying. This hospital did not have the medical capacity to treat the seriousness of HUS. They immediately flight lifted Kamberlyn to a children’s hospital in Denver, a five-hour drive from our home.  

When she arrived at the children’s hospital, she was placed in the ICU where she was sedated for the placement of a central line
(IV in her neck).  She was then placed on a dialysis machine for 24 hours. It was very important that they continued to watch her levels of sodium and calcium along with other things.  She was in a fragile state and needed to be monitored very closely.  For several days, she had hourly blood tests.HUS causes the blood platelet levels to become dangerously low. She received a total of 5 blood transfusions. She was eventually taken off continuous dialysis and continued dialysis intermittently based on creatinine and BUN levels.  She was on Dialysis for 10 days.

Kamberlyn was also diagnosed with C-diff which is highly contagious.  She had to be quarantined and was unable leave her room.  She also had pancreatitis. She was hospitalized for 12 days and sick for a total of 22 days. During our hospital visits the health department called us and asked us about what we had eaten over the last couple weeks before getting sick, and to be specific about the food. Once we mentioned McDonalds, he wanted to know very specifically what she had eaten. The onions in the quarter pounders is what was that contaminated with Ecoli. 

Kamberlyn was able to leave the hospital on October 31, 2024. While hospitalized, she continued to talk about being able to go trick or treating. She was determined to be able to go, and she did. She was tired and she struggled and ended the night early but she did it!  We had a checkup in December, where they told us she has 90% kidney function. If nothing changes, she should have kidney function without issues. When she gets older, there is a possibility things could change. She may experience kidney failure resulting in a kidney transplant. With HUS, there are a lot of the unknown complications moving forward. There is no way to know how it’s going to affect her body. HUS wreaks havoc on your body and damages a lot inside your body. 
https://www.cdc.gov/ecoli/outbreaks/investigation-update-e-coli-o157-2024.html

“A total of 104 people infected with the outbreak strain of E. coli O157:H7 were reported from 14 states. Illnesses started on dates ranging from September 12, 2024, to October 21, 2024. Of 98 people with information available, 34 were hospitalized, and 4 people developed hemolytic uremic syndrome (HUS), a serious condition that can cause kidney failure. One death was reported from an older adult in Colorado. This person was not one of those who developed HUS.”