Who would believe a simple hamburger could change a life forever? Both my daughter and son were sick that night, but after a few days my son was eating again while my daughter was getting weaker and weaker. After five days at home I took her to the emergency room because I was afraid she was becoming dehydrated from the diarrhea, by this time just foul smelling bloody mucus. She was immediately diagnosed with HUS and sent to Children's Hospital in Seattle.

I never worried about her life as the doctors told me they had never lost a child to HUS. Still, she was on dialysis for three weeks before she finally started to show improvement. She was monitored for fluid in her lungs and around her heart, and she was given blood transfusions. She lay in a "banana cart" wearing a flower hat while I wheeled her around the Halloween festival at the hospital, her face swollen from the fluids she could not eliminate. But I know we are lucky because many kids who were as ill as she was suffer other organ damage or die. She left the hospital after a month with kidneys functioning at about half of normal. It took her two years to get back to grade level reading after missing two months of first grade.

Even though we continued to have her monitored annually and were warned that new problems could appear at puberty, we were stunned when she developed Bells Palsy at age 17. Another trip to the emergency room showed her blood pressure had sky rocketed to 240/150 and her kidneys were again failing. Looking back I guess there were some warning signs, but we thought the occasional headaches and dizziness were from stress and normal for a teenager. She was taking medication for depression and birth control, despite her doctors' knowledge of her medical history. I believe these medications were at least partly responsible for Linda's high blood pressure, but no one will confirm that.

After spending another week in the hospital, Linda today has about 35% of normal kidney function and takes blood pressure medicine. We've been told she'll have to take that for the rest of her life and may have problems with pregnancy. Her nephrologist expects her to be fine until maybe her 40's as her kidneys gradually wear out.

Too little is known about the long term prognosis for these kids. I wonder today if she should be eating a special diet or taking supplements, but no doctor has recommended that. Surely there are warning signs for parents to watch for, medications and foods to avoid, steps that can be taken to improve a child's chance to live without kidney problems.

I can't imagine what it's like to lose a child to this senseless poison. It's time for the food industry to "step up to the plate" and take responsiblity for implementing the best safety programs available. It is the practices of this industry that have spread poison to innocent people. It is the practices of this industry that can eliminate the contamination of our food.

Written by Linda's mother, Debbie Treen, April 15, 2025

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