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'Second Chance' - An Important Book

By Dan Flynn and Suzanna Schreck

Kip Moore is a big, square-jawed transplanted Kansas Jayhawker living with his family in Golden, Colorado.  He's written a book titled: "Second Chance: The Story of a Father's Faith, a Mother's Strength, and Child's Will to Live."

When books are written about E. coli victims' stories, it's usually the mother doing the writing.  Moore's book offers the perspective of a father, although his wife Marti contributes a chapter.

"Second Chance" is the  story of survival for now six-year-old Chance Moore.

It's a book that is not written in a straight line, but rather as events impacted upon Kip.  He says he wrote the book in six weeks, but could not bring himself to even begin the task for more than three years after Chance came home from Denver's Children's Hospital.

The Moore family minus daughter Shannon, who was at dance camp, took a long weekend vacation in late July 2005 to visit Mount Rushmore and attend a  friend's vows renewal ceremony.

On the morning they visited the national monument, the family had breakfast at a national chain restaurant.  Kip and Chance, just a toddler then, shared one of those skillet breakfasts with veggies, sausage, and, yes, diced up hamburger. Marti also had a bite.

Kip remembers one unusual event during breakfast--a severe automobile crash occurred on the street in front of the restaurants.  Kitchen staff had stepped outside to watch the extraction efforts of first responders.  Kip now suspects someone lost track of cooking times and temperatures for his skillet.

Kip says he cannot help but thinking how different life would have been for the last five years had he ordered pancakes that morning.

Back home at the beginning of the following week, both Kip and Chance were sick with all the classic symptoms of an E. coli infection.   After trips to Chance's doctor and the local hospital emergency room, the boy was admitted to Children's Hospital where he'd fight for his life.

Most of the book is about what Kip and Marti experienced during Chance's battle with a non-O157:H7 strain of E. coli that came perilously close to taking his kidneys and probably his life.  It's a story about faith, and yes, even miracles, from a guy who does not wear his religion on his sleeve. 

Moore's book has also managed to engage members of both political parties.  Both Democratic Congresswoman Diana DeGette from Colorado and Republican Lynn Jenkins of Kansas wrote introductions for the book.

The congresswomen are strong advocates of food safety reform.

"Second Chance" is an important story.  It is one that will especially help other parents with children suffering thought serious foodborne illnesses.   It is a story that reminds us that "chance" is an important part of life, but so, too, is how we handle it.

Full post as published by Food Safety News on February 21, 2010 (boomark / email).