The story, taken from McCall's Health, March 1999
Last
June, 30-year-old Tammy Lowery of Alpine, WY, had no idea that she was
dangerously close to death. Suffering from diarrhea, Lowery thought she
had the flu. As the week wore on, she endured wrenching stomach pains,
bloody stools and paralyzing cramps. By the fifth day she couldn't even
stand up straight. "I had natural childbirth twice and a complete hysterectomy,
but nothing compared to this kind of crippling pain," Lowery says. When
she noticed her five-year-old son holding his stomach, she called her
physician, Donald Kirk, MD, who told her to come to his office immediately
with her children.
Moments after she arrived, Lowery started to feel wobbly. "Catch her, she's going down!" Lowery remembers hearing Kirk yell. When she came to, she was on a gurney, hooked up to an IV, about to be rushed to the nearby hospital. Lab tests confirmed Lowery was carrying E. coli 0157:H7 - the most deadly strain. This bug behaves savagely, producing toxins that damage blood vessels in the intestines and kidneys, which can cause the kidneys to shut down. Thankfully Lowery regained most of her kidney function after a three-day hospital stay. "When I found out I had E. coli I couldn't believe it," says Lowery. "I'm so careful in the kitchen. So how could this happen?"
Pollution