Everett, WA

On June 17, 1999, my son and I met my father and his friend at a restaurant in Everett, WA for breakfast. I was eight weeks pregnant, and I hadn't told my father yet. I was going to surprise him over breakfast.

As we placed our order, our server asked if my son would like something to drink. As an afterthought, I said, "Sure. He'll have an orange juice." Breakfast arrived, and as I excitedly talked of my pregnancy and how happy my husband and I were, I took sips from Tanner's juice.

By 8:00pm the next night, Tanner had diarrhea and abdominal cramping. I thought it was perhaps a flu bug, so he went to bed early. My husband and I were awakened at 3:00am to hear him screaming. He had thrown up all over his bed, and was trying to make it to the bathroom because he had pooped his pants. He was running a fever of 103, and his eyes were all glassy. His abdomen was distended and when I placed my hand on his tummy I could feel it gurgling. Thus began the ten day nightmare I will never forget.

By the 19th, I was also sick with diarrhea and abdominal cramping. In addition, I was nauseated and had an aching head, but I attributed some of those symptoms to my pregnancy. I spent four days holding my screaming child and watching him cry, in between trips to the bathroom. It got so bad that all I could do was lay him on a towel in the bathroom and tell him to push it out while he screamed in agony. I could always tell when an attack was coming on, because if he was standing he would clutch his tummy and fall to the floor, while crying out, "Mommy owie, owie, owie." During this time, I called the triage line four times in two hours, trying to figure out what could be wrong. I inquired about E. Coli, worms, and appendicitis. I was convinced that I needed to take him to the hospital, but they kept telling me that he hadn't been sick long enough, and that I should wait it out and if after three days he was still feverish and had diarrhea then bring him in.

I knew he was very ill, but when I took him to the doctor on the 22nd, she said it was likely just a "tummy bug." I brought in a stool sample because, ironically enough, I was afraid he had gotten E. Coli from the fruit he had eaten at the restaurant for breakfast. At this time, I was still unaware of the Sun Orchard outbreak. The doctor checked his stool and told me she had found blood. At that time she said to watch him, (since his fever had broken) and if he still felt ill in three days she would request a culture. I explained that I was pregnant, and asked her if what we had could harm the baby. She said that while stomach flu is uncomfortable for the mother, it wouldn't harm the fetus.

He actually had an attack while we were in the doctor's office, and her statement to me was that, "little kids don't understand what a tummy ache is, so it's scary for them. That's why he's screaming." No, he was screaming because he was in more pain than he had ever experienced before. I knew that, but I didn't want to sound like one of "those" moms who worries about everything. I wish now that I had. Against all of my instincts as a mother, I accepted what she told me and took my screaming child home.

He slowly began eating better, and acting a little more animated. After every meal, though, his stomach would blow up like a balloon and he would experience watery, explosive diarrhea. I was also noticing that my own symptoms were getting worse. I was queasy, dizzy, and was also having watery diarrhea. I felt completely drained, and was still trying to take care of my sick child.

I was scheduled to attend my commencement ceremony on Saturday, June 26, where I was accepting my Bachelor of Science that I had attended night classes for the past three years to earn. Friends and family were coming from out of state to share in my special day and celebrate my achievement.

To prepare for the big day, I mustered up all my energy on Thursday, June 24, to go out and purchase a dress for the ceremony. Tanner was feeling somewhat better, so I decided to risk it. I reached the third store and suddenly felt a wave of nausea wash over me. I got dizzy and disoriented and immediately left the store. I never purchased a dress. As I got into my car, I felt an amazing pain go through my head, like nothing I have experienced before. I thought I would vomit right then, but I managed to calm myself down. I drove through the parking lot to a restaurant, where I got something to drink. I sat there trying to get myself together. I managed to drive myself home (and still to this day I am not sure how I made it), where I got Tanner out of the car and ran for the door. I just made it to the bathroom, where I vomited until I was dry-heaving, and then I collapsed on the floor of the bathroom. I told Tanner to bring Mommy the phone, and he got it for me. I called Jake and told him something was seriously wrong with me, that I needed him home now. Then I hung up and cried until he got there. My head ached so bad that I could barely move, and it felt like there were needles in my eyes. I also could feel my stomach churning and gurgling. It was awful because my 2-year-old son was sitting there rubbing my back watching me cry. I am heartbroken that he had to watch me go through that. When Jake got home, he put me to bed. I slept for four hours, and when I woke up my headache had subsided, but I was bleeding. My heart sank as I realized what was happening.

I called my OB/GYN's office and they said that sometimes bleeding can be normal, but it was not terribly encouraging. They told me just to lie down and rest and that maybe it would stop. When I woke up on Friday, the bleeding was worse. By Friday, people had begun arriving to celebrate graduation. I was in a state of emotional distress, and it was compounded by the fact that I had to go through this horrible ordeal in front of 15 people who were there to share in my joy. My Dad took me down to my OB's office, where I sat in the waiting room while they decided what to do with me. I never got to see the doctor that day. They just gave me my Rhogam shot, stuck a bunch of needles in my arm, and gave me a plastic cup to take home with me. They said I was supposed to save any of the "products of conception" that I "passed" and bring it in to them to analyze. I took my cup and went home.

The next day (graduation day) I woke up having contractions and diarrhea. I was bleeding heavily by this time, and was in a lot of pain. During a conversation with my mother-in-law, she mentioned that she had seen news about the Sun Orchard outbreak and that the same chain of restaurants had been one of the places the news talked about. She was concerned because the symptoms described matched perfectly with what Tanner and I had been going through, and we lived less than four miles away from the restaurant. I was in shock! I called the restaurant's, and a man named Randy got on the phone. He reassured me that they had never carried that tainted juice; all of their juice had been pasteurized; but he did say that just "out of courtesy" they had pulled all of their juice from the shelves. I took him at his word and didn't give it any more thought. Of course, several weeks later we would have genetic fingerprinting from Tanner's positive culture that pointed right back to that restaurant. That same restaurant, even today, is serving unpasteurized juice that is noted as "fresh squeezed" on the menu.

My house was full of people trying to console me, but it was a very hard time. I did not go to commencement, which in itself was crushing because I had worked so hard; so my Dad got everyone to hum "Pomp and Circumstance" as I pretended to walk across the stage. I got to the other side of the room, had a large contraction, and ended up miscarrying right there. My husband got me in the car and we dashed off to the ER. Several hours later I returned home drained and heartbroken. Diagnosis: complete miscarriage.

We spent the next several months testing and retesting Tanner for salmonella. He is clean now, and things are somewhat back to normal. We sold our house in July and decided to move closer to family. I couldn't stand the idea of being so far away from everyone in a crisis. We are back home in Oregon now, and I am working full time. I do not know if I want to try to get pregnant again; I feel like I was robbed and subsequently my life has taken a completely different turn. We have had to pay approximately $2000 in medical bills since we did not have insurance at the time, so this has really set us back financially. I am just glad that my son is acting like himself again. We were very lucky.

Copyright 1999 by author: Brandi Ulrey

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