AURORA, Colo. — A Grand Junction teen has been hospitalized with kidney failure linked to E. coli after eating a McDonald's Quarter Pounder.
As of Oct. 24, 75 cases have been reported across 13 states, with a majority concentrated in Colorado, according to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA). One person — a resident of Mesa County — has died from the outbreak, the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment (CDPHE) confirmed.
McDonald's claims the slivered onions procured from the Taylor Farms facility in Colorado Springs are the "likely source of contamination." However, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) said it is "using all available tools to confirm if onions are the source of this outbreak."
Kamberlyn Bowler, 15, of Grand Junction has a standard order at McDonald's — a Quarter Pounder with extra pickles. She ate that specific meal at least twice between the end of September and the beginning of October, according to her attorney.
Kamberlyn's mom, Brittany Randall, said her daughter started complaining about not feeling well on Oct. 8. Her condition quickly deteriorated over the next few days.
“On the 11th, she texted me and told me that she had bloody stool and blood in her urine and she was also throwing up blood," Randall said. “I took her to our doctor, and the doctor thought that we should probably go to the emergency room. She was thinking it was an appendicitis.”
The Grand Junction hospital administered fluids to Kamberlyn and told the family to bring her back if her symptoms worsened. Ten days after the teen first became ill, testing showed she was in acute kidney failure.
Medical records provided to Denver7 show Kamberlyn was a "previously healthy" 15-year-old who presented with acute kidney injury and hemolytic uremic syndrome (HUS), a complication that occurs as a result of contracting E. coli.
“It was showing acute kidney failure, and HUS is what we were told first. She did do a stool sample at that time, and they came back and said that she had E coli, which at that point they weren't really worried about the E coli because the kidney failure was the bigger problem," Randall explained. "[Doctors] said that they couldn't handle that kind of situation in Grand Junction."
Kamberlyn was transported to Children's Hospital Colorado in Aurora for treatment.
Randall said they were contacted by the health department and asked where Kamberlyn had recently eaten. They also asked if she had been near any petting zoos or bodies of water.
"That was the first time that we had heard anything about anybody else being sick with the same thing. So we didn't really understand beforehand that this was involved with anything else," Randall said. “We got a second phone call from the health department asking specifically about the McDonald's and what she had ordered."
Randall said her daughter has been sick for the majority of October and has missed two weeks of school. Kamberlyn expects to miss even more school as a result of her treatment.
“Yes, she's 15, but she still likes to go trick or treating, and she's going to miss that. She missed her last couple of games — her softball games for high school — which this is her first year in high school ball," said Randall. “It's like a roller coaster of emotions.”
The family said Kamberlyn may have one more dialysis treatment but that could change. The 15-year-old told Denver7 she will likely never eat at McDonald's again.
"I'm a little haunted by it," said Kamberlyn.
The family retained attorney Ron Simon, the managing partner of Ron Simon & Associates. Simon and his firm filed the first two lawsuits against McDonald's related to the E. coli outbreak.
Simon's firm has been retained by 33 of the confirmed victims. He said more lawsuits are coming, including Kamberlyn's, which he expects to file this week.
“We will pursue each of these cases individually. Our law firm doesn't do class actions. I personally think it's kind of lazy, but in each case, we will file a lawsuit on behalf of the individuals, and the reason we do that is because all cases are different," said Simon. “Some are significant value, some are less. They're in different jurisdictions, different locations, different communities all across the country.”
Simon said there are three central goals of each lawsuit — obtain compensation for the damages his clients have suffered, give each family a voice, and work to prevent a similar outbreak from happening again.
"It's especially pertinent with regards to McDonald's and Taylor Farms, a supplier, because this exact scenario happened five years ago in a national outbreak where Taylor Farms sold contaminated produce to McDonald's, used in McDonald's salads, and got hundreds of people nationwide sick. So here we are all over again," said Simon. “It's incredibly frustrating for me as a food advocate and for these citizens that have become harmed the second time.”
The Colorado Department of Agriculture (CDA) tested samples of fresh and frozen beef patties from McDonald's locations associated with the outbreak and found no E. coli, according to results released over the weekend. In that release, the CDA said it has "no information suggesting onions grown in Colorado are linked to this outbreak."
In a statement Sunday, McDonald's Chief Supply Chain Officer Cesar Piña said the Quarter Pounder is expected to be available in all restaurants this week. McDonald's said it will no longer source onions from the Taylor Farms Colorado Springs facility.
The statement continued, "The issue appears to be contained to a particular ingredient and geography, and we remain very confident that any contaminated product related to this outbreak has been removed from our supply chain and is out of all McDonald’s restaurants."
Taylor Farms issued a voluntary recall of yellow onions. Because of the actions taken by both McDonald's and Taylor Farms, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention "believes the risk to the public is very low."
Denver7 reached out to McDonald's about the lawsuits but has not heard back as of the publication of this article.
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