Via Doug Powell

From Doug Powell and BITES at KSU:


NEVADA: This woman might die from eating cookie dough
01.sep.09
The Washington Post
Lyndsey Layton
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/08/31/AR2009083103922.html

Severe Case Gives Context to Issue of Food Safety

LAS VEGAS -- In Room 519 of Kindred Hospital, Linda Rivera can no longer speak.
Her mute state, punctuated only by groans, is the latest downturn in the swift collapse of her health that began in May when she curled up on her living room couch and nonchalantly ate several spoonfuls of the Nestlé cookie dough her family had been consuming for years. Federal health officials believe she is among 80 people in 31 states sickened by cookie dough contaminated with a deadly bacteria, E. coli O157:H7.
The impact of the infection has been especially severe for Rivera and nine other victims who developed a life-threatening complication known as hemolytic uremic syndrome. One, a 4-year-old girl from South Carolina, had a stroke and is partially paralyzed.
Last week, chilled packages of the chocolate-chip cookie dough returned to supermarkets after a two-month absence as company executives tried in vain to find the cause of the contamination. They scrubbed their production plant, bought new ingredients and started making dough again.
Linda Rivera has just been trying to stay alive. Her cascading problems started about seven days after she ate the dough when her kidneys shut down and she went into septic shock. Then doctors had to remove part of her colon, which had become contaminated. Soon, her gallbladder was inflamed and had to be excised. Shortly after, her liver stopped functioning. It is unclear exactly what is causing her loss of speech, although the toxin produced by the E. coli O157:H7 bacteria can attack the brain.
Of all the victims, Rivera has spent the most time in hospitals -- more than 120 days since May. She was recovering well enough at one point to go home for nine days but, during that reprieve, she had to be rushed to the emergency room three times.
Her case is unusual because E. coli O157:H7 tends to most seriously affect the very young and old. At 57, Linda Rivera is not part of either vulnerable group. Her situation is also unique for the number of major organs that have been injured. Her family and one of her physicians said she had no underlying health problems that would have exacerbated the infection.
The Rivera family never gave much thought to food-borne illness. "You watch a commercial, you go into a store and you just assume it's okay to eat," said Linda's husband, Richard, a sales manager for a Web site. "I assume if it's on a shelf, it's safe. But this whole thing has changed the way I look at food."
"People just don't really understand how horrible food-borne illness is," said William Marler, a prominent Seattle-based food-safety lawyer who is representing the Rivera family and 23 other victims in the cookie dough outbreak. "They think food-borne illness is a tummy ache and diarrhea."
Linda Rivera was a high school teacher's aide who was always in motion, cheering her sons at their soccer games and wrestling and track meets, ferrying her twin teenage boys across town to playing fields and skate parks. Now she struggles to hold up her head. Her communication is reduced to shaky hand signals; she turns her right thumb up or down slightly in answer to her husband's questions.
Richard Rivera's eyes well up when he contrasts the exhausted, gaunt woman lying askew in the hospital bed with the bubbly blonde he married 12 years ago. It was a second marriage for both, and they each brought three children to the union. "We called ourselves the Brady Bunch," he said.
Once the CDC made the link between the outbreak of E. coli illness and Nestlé cookie dough in June, Nestlé immediately recalled about 3.6 million packages at a cost of $30 million to $50 million, according to Laurie McDonald, a company spokeswoman.
The company and FDA investigators focused on Nestlé's Danville, Va., plant, which produces all its refrigerated cookie dough. E. coli O157:H7 was not found in the plant or on equipment but was detected among the samples of dough that Nestlé routinely sets aside for analysis. However, the contaminated dough had a different genetic fingerprint than the strain that caused the national outbreak, puzzling company officials.
In consultation with the FDA, Nestlé bought new supplies of flour, eggs and margarine and restarted production July 7, McDonald said. The revived product, which is packaged with a "New Batch" label and a prominent warning against eating raw cookie dough, went on sale last week. It is too early to track sales, McDonald said.
Nestlé "is aware of Mrs. Rivera's illness and our thoughts and prayers are with her and her family," McDonald said. She said the company has been in contact with the Rivera family through Marler and "we have offered support to the family." She declined to elaborate.
Neither Richard Rivera nor Marler would say whether Nestlé has made any payments. Linda Rivera has not filed a lawsuit against Nestlé, although three of Marler's clients have.
In the three months since she fell ill, Linda Rivera missed her 18-year-old son J.J.'s high school graduation. She missed Mother's Day. Her stepsister unexpectedly died last week, but Richard hasn't told Linda, not wanting to add to her stress.