A toddler who contracted E. coli after visiting a county fair in Maine died on Oct 5. Twenty-month-old Colton Guay had visited the petting zoo at the Oxford County Fair in Maine, where he was allegedly infected with a bacteria. According to parents of the toddler, Colton had contracted hemolytic uremic syndrome (HUS), a condition characterized by abnormal destruction of red blood cells.
Explaining the syndrome, the Mayo Clinic said that in HUS, damaged red blood cells can disable the kidneys' filtering system, leading to organ failure. HUS is most common in children, and the most common cause of acute kidney failure among this demographic, according to the National Institutes of Health (NIH), reports Fox News.
"It is believed that he contracted it through simple interaction with farm animals at a local fair (based on other similar cases). It began with severe diarrhea and ended with massive brain seizures that ultimately took his life. I have learned that there is no pain worse than losing the life of your child's," wrote the grieving father Jon on Facebook.
Meanwhile, there are reports that another child who had also visited the fair last month contracted E. coli. Lab tests conducted on the two children have shown the presence of toxins associated with E. coli in both of them. Officials are investigating common links between the cases.
"The Maine CDC has been investigating for any common links to the cases, and that effort continues. Maine CDC is working with the State Veterinarian and the Department of Agriculture, Conservation and Forestry to investigate the fact that each child attended the Oxford Fair and visited the animal barns and petting zoo," said John A. Martins, the Public Health Information Officer for Maine's Center for Disease Control, reports CBS.
I apologize for not posting anything sooner concerning the disease my son has gone through but it was simply too painful...
Posted by Jon Guay on Tuesday, October 6, 2015
