Alex Donley was a tender-hearted 6-year-old who dreamed of someday being a paramedic when he was stricken with an E. coli infection in 1993 after eating a hamburger made from contaminated ground beef. Four days later, he died in a hospital room after suffering a horrific bout of hemolytic uremic
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Happy Ending for Family Devastated by Listeria
When Joanna Valentine finally got pregnant after two years of attempts and more than 10 years together with her partner, Laurie Sorenson, she knew that she was going to take every recommended precaution during her pregnancy. Part of that meant buckling down on the adventurous side of her diet. Despite…
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A Mom and a Dairyman Plead: Don’t Feed Children Raw Milk
Two years ago, when Oregon parents Jill Brown and Jason Young met Brad and Tricia Salyers, the families had no idea that they would eventually be sharing in a tragedy that sickened four of the Salyers’ children and left Brown and Young’s youngest child, Kylee – 23 months old at…
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Never-Ending Salmonella: Woman Tests Positive for Nine Months
Somewhere last week within the San Francisco Department of Public Health, Mari Haughey imagines that the laboratory technicians might have taken a moment to pop open a bottle of champagne. Haughey, a registered nurse, had plenty of reason herself to celebrate. On Jan. 22, after nine months of testing positive…
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Girl Fights E. Coli from Raw Milk as Medical Bills Mount
Almost lost in the flurry of “food-freedom” comments on the Facebook page of an eastern Tennessee raw-milk dairy farm that has been linked to an E. coli outbreak is the plight of five-year-old Maddie Powell, who remains hospitalized after developing hemolytic uremic syndrome (HUS), a potentially fatal kidney disease associated…
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Two-Time E. coli Victim Pushes to Improve Seattle's Restaurant Grading System
Sarah Schacht is part of a select group of people with the distinction of falling ill with E. coli in two separate outbreaks. First a victim in Seattle’s Jack in the Box E. coli outbreak of 1993 at the age of 13, Schacht was hit with the bug again 20…
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Pew: Frozen Berry Hepatitis A Outbreak Underscores Need for FSMA
Since first hitting headlines nearly two months ago on May 31, news reports have largely fizzled out regarding the outbreak of hepatitis A linked to frozen organic berries from Townsend Farms and sold at Costco stores. But for 150 people known to have fallen ill with the virus, the ordeal…
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Hepatitis A Vaccination Process Causes Stress, Fear for Many
Reflecting on a week of sleepless nights and gut-churning stress, George Bentley said he wished Costco’s recall of frozen berries could have come at a better time. Bentley, from La Puente, Calif., got a call from Costco on the evening of Friday, May 31. The retailer had just announced a…
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FDA Uses Video Testimonials to Illustrate Consequences of Food Poisoning to Retailers
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration posted three videos featuring people affected by foodborne illness Wednesday in an effort to educate food retailers on the potentially devastating effects of an outbreak. Two of the videos feature family members of Zella Ploghoft of Athens, Ohio, who died of complications from a…
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Peanut Corp. Victims: Indictment Sets an Example
Following the U.S. Department of Justice’s indictment of former Peanut Corporation of America executives on Thursday, the families of victims poisoned by the company responded with joy and relief at the prospect of a criminal trial four years after the company caused a nationwide Salmonella outbreak that killed nine people…
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