Colorado teen fights kidney failure after eating McDonald's Quarter
Pounders
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[October 30, 2024]
By JONEL ALECCIA
A 15-year-old high school freshman is hospitalized with severe
complications of food poisoning after eating McDonald’s Quarter Pounder
hamburgers three times in the weeks before a deadly E. coli outbreak was
detected.
Kamberlyn Bowler, of Grand Junction, Colorado, had to be flown 250 miles
to a hospital near Denver in mid-October, where she received dialysis
for 10 days in an urgent effort to save her kidneys.
She is one at least 75 people sickened and 22 hospitalized in the
outbreak tentatively traced to contaminated onions. In Mesa County,
where Kamberlyn lives, 11 people have fallen ill and one person died.
Federal health officials have said that slivered onions used on the
burgers are a likely source of the outbreak.
The ordeal left Kamberlyn’s mother, Brittany Randall, worried about her
daughter’s health and shaken at the idea that a burger could potentially
cause so much harm.
“It’s pretty scary to know that we put so much faith and trust that
we’re going to be eating something that’s healthy and for it to be
broken,” said Randall.
She is moving to sue the fast-food chain after Kamberlyn was infected
with the E. coli O157:H7 bacteria confirmed in the outbreak.
That bacteria produces a dangerous toxin that can cause a severe kidney
disease complication known as hemolytic uremic syndrome, according to
medical experts. Many children are hospitalized for weeks and some go on
to require kidney transplants, said Dr. Myda Khalid, a kidney specialist
at Riley Hospital for Children in Indiana who is not involved in
Kamberlyn's care.
“Time is critical,” Khalid said. “We have to get through this window and
we have to get through it with a lot of care,” she said.
The condition can be fatal, but most children eventually recover, she
said.
Kamberlyn said she ate McDonald’s Quarter Pounders with cheese, extra
pickles -- and onions -- three times between Sept. 27 and Oct. 8. She
said the burgers were easy to grab during a football halftime and while
watching a school softball game.
She started feeling sick in the days after and experienced fever,
vomiting, diarrhea and painful stomach cramps.
“I couldn’t get out of bed,” she recalled. “I couldn’t eat. I couldn’t
drink. I was surviving on Popsicles. I felt like crap.”
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In this photo provided by Brittany Randall, Randall, left, and her
daughter, Kamberlyn Bowler, pose for a selfie photo in Grand
Junction, Colo., in the summer of 2024. (Brittany Randall via AP)
Randall, who works as a jail guard,
has three older children and thought that her young daughter might
just have the flu. But when Kamberlyn texted to say she had blood in
her stool and urine and was vomiting blood, Randall said she knew it
was serious.
On Oct. 11, Kamberlyn went to a hospital in Grand Junction. Doctors
said she likely had a stomach bug. She was sent home, with
instructions to stay hydrated. By Oct. 17, she was feeling no better
and returned to the emergency room. That time, tests showed
Kamberlyn had acute kidney failure, her mother said. She was flown
to Children’s Hospital Colorado in Aurora, near Denver, where she
remained on Tuesday.
Chris Kempczinski, McDonald’s chairman, president and CEO,
apologized for the outbreak Tuesday on a conference call with
investors.
“Nothing is more important to us than the safety of our customers,”
Kempczinksi said. “The recent spate of E. coli cases is deeply
concerning, and hearing reports of how this has impacted our
customers has been wrenching for us.”
Randall said her daughter's future health — and medical costs — are
uncertain.
“The hospital bills are racking up,” she said. “And I'm a single mom
and I just don't know that I can necessarily afford all of what's
coming after all of this. And I don't know what the future looks
like, either."
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