'Healthy' teenage girl fights kidney failure after eating McDonald's burger amid E coli outbreak
Topics: Health, McDonalds, Food and Drink, US News
Britt Jones
Featured Image Credit: Nathan Stirk/Getty Images/Family Handout
Topics: Health, McDonalds, Food and Drink, US News
A Colorado teenager is fighting for her life after contracting E. coli poisoning after eating a Quarter Pounder.
Kamberlyn Bowler, 15, had been visiting the famous US fast-food burger joint, McDonald’s in the days leading up to her symptoms appearing.
According to Bowler, who spoke to NBC, she had ordered a Quarter Pounder with cheese and extra pickles several times before she was hospitalized and is battling kidney failure.
Kamberlyn is just one of many who claim to have become ill after having eaten McDonald’s Quarter Pounders.
Advert
In fact, at least 75 people across 13 states have fallen ill with E. coli after eating at the chain, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, with one person having died.
Kamberlyn’s mother, Brittany Randall, explained to NBC News that her symptoms began as a fever and stomach issues.
However, the teen said: “We both kind of thought I just had a fever, like just the flu or something — a stomach bug.
“But then I started throwing up, having diarrhea, and it was bloody, so it scared me.”
Randall then went on to take Kamberlyn to the doctor before traveling to the emergency room so that they could scan her.
When the scans didn’t show anything, they decided to go home where the teenager’s condition didn’t get better.
Brittany said: “I think it was day six that she said: ‘Something’s not right. I don’t feel good. I need to go back to the hospital.’”
It was this time at the hospital that they found something life-threatening: Kamberlyn had contracted E. coli so severe that she was now in renal failure.
On October 18, the teenager was airlifted to Children’s Hospital Colorado where she remains.
Brittany added: “It’s been definitely a roller coaster from the time that we’ve gotten here until now. Every day has been new tests or new things that pop up, or it’s basically watching her body just not work.”
Kamberlyn has since been diagnosed with enterohemorrhagic Escherichia coli-associated hemolytic uremic syndrome, which can occur if the E. coli infection begins to attack the kidneys.
Now, she is receiving dialysis.
Brittany shared: “We’re not really sure what it’s going to look like for her moving forward.
“She’ll probably have to do another round of dialysis. We’re hoping that that’s the last one, but we also don’t know, and we don’t know if there’s going to be future issues.”
According to NBC, McDonald’s has removed its slivered onions from its menu, citing that it was the most likely source of contamination.
Taylor Farms, the distributor has also ‘preemptiveley recalled’ the yellow onions as even though it hasn’t been confirmed to have specifically caused the outbreak.
The CDC states that those who contract E. coli may experience severe stomach cramps, diarrhea and vomiting, and most will recover without treatment in around a week,
However, a tiny percentage of two percent will develop HUS like Kamberlyn.
The mother and daughter now plan to sue the chain.
A McDonald’s spokesperson told NBC that stories like the teens are ‘devastating to us’ and that the ‘well-being of our customers is deeply important to us.’
UNILAD previously contacted McDonald's for a comment.