Personal Injury Law

Nestle Toll House Cookie Dough E. coli O157:H7 Outbreak Expands to 74 Ill in 32 States

By Bill Marler, Esq.

I spent the morning on the phone with two young fathers whose children are both victims of Hemolytic Uremic Syndrome caused by E. coli O157:H7 that has been linked by the CDC to Nestle Toll House Cookie Dough.  One child, an 8-year-old from Michigan has been hospitalized for nearly a week and has received at least one blood transfusion.  The other child is a 4-year-old from South Carolina.  She was recently released from an Atlanta Rehab center after three and a half weeks.  This is on top of nearly two months in the hospital, weeks on dialysis and suffering from a stroke.

I also followed up with a Nevada woman, who too has been linked to the outbreak, and who is still hospitalized after over two months in the hospital.  She has suffered the removal of a portion of her large intestine and was on dialysis until the last few days.  A week ago she was just learning how to walk again.  E. coli O157:H7 is a very, very nasty bug.  

The new CDC numbers also came out today:

* 74 cases from 32 states - all match by PFGE testing

* Onset ranges from March 16 to June 11

* 72% female, age range 2-65 years (median age 15)

* 34 Hospitalizations

* 10 with Hemolytic Uremic Syndrome (HUS)

Full post as published by Marler Blog on July 10, 2009 (boomark / email).