A 15-year-old freshman in high school has been hospitalized with serious complications from food poisoning after consuming McDonald’s Quarter Pounder hamburgers three times in the weeks leading up to a deadly E. coli outbreak. Kamberlyn Bowler from Grand Junction, Colorado, was airlifted 250 miles to a hospital near Denver in mid-October, where she underwent 10 days of dialysis to help save her kidneys. She is among at least 75 individuals who became ill, with 22 requiring hospitalization, linked to the outbreak tentatively attributed to contaminated onions. In Mesa County, where Kamberlyn resides, 11 individuals have become sick and one has died. Federal health officials have indicated that slivered onions used on the burgers are probably the source of the outbreak. This situation has left Kamberlyn’s mother, Brittany Randall, concerned about her daughter’s health and disturbed by the thought that a burger could be so harmful. “It’s quite frightening to realize that we trust we’re eating something healthy, and then it turns out to be unsafe,” said Randall. She plans to sue the fast-food chain after Kamberlyn contracted the E. coli O157:H7 bacteria linked to the outbreak. Medical experts warn that this bacteria produces a harmful toxin that can lead to a serious kidney disease complication called hemolytic uremic syndrome. Dr. Myda Khalid, a kidney specialist at Riley Hospital for Children in Indiana who is not part of Kamberlyn’s treatment, mentioned that numerous children are hospitalized for several weeks, and some may need kidney transplants. “Time is essential,” Khalid stated. “We need to navigate this period very carefully,” she stated. The condition can be life-threatening, but most children do recover in the end, she mentioned. Kamberlyn said she enjoyed McDonald’s Quarter Pounders with cheese, extra pickles, and onions three times in September. 27 and October 8. She mentioned that the burgers were convenient to eat during a football halftime and while watching a school softball game. In the following days, she began to feel ill, suffering from fever, vomiting, diarrhea, and painful stomach cramps. “I couldn’t get out of bed,” she remembered. I wasn’t able to eat.
