Memoir of a Raw-Milk-Illness-Turned-Medical-Nightmare: Part 2
Monday, April 2, 2007 at 10:52PM I’d like to try to clarify one matter before presenting the concluding segment of the timeline from Mary McGonigle-Martin and Tony Martin concerning the illness of their son, Chris.
Several readers have questioned whether Chris became ill from raw milk. I appreciate their concerns that no one knows with absolute certainty what made him sick. I have ascribed the illness to raw milk based on an assessment by the California Department of Health Services, which in late September said it “studied all information available to determine linkages in the cases of four children stricken with E.colio 0157:H7 bacterial illness. That information revealed that the only common exposure reported by all four cases was consumption of raw milk or raw colostrum...in the week prior to symptom onset.” Chris Martin was a fifth child who became ill, with no E.coli being found. Because the timing and symptoms were so much like those of the other children, his parents feel he was similarly affected.
As I pointed out yesterday, this isn’t really a story about raw milk, but about deficiencies in our medical system that too often aren’t properly acknowledged by medical and insurance authorities.
Finally, I have edited this segment to remove certain passages making accusations or ascribing motives to certain Kaiser officials.
HERE IS PART 2, "Timeline for Christopher Chase Martin":
(Tony continues the story, in the first person.)
At this point, 1:30 p.m., I was furious. I requested a private room where Dr. K and I could discuss this matter privately. He took me to a private room and we both sat down.
(Tony describes at some length the details of conversations he had with physicians. Tony says he eventually convinced the doctors and Kaiser administration to approve the transfer, which happened by the end of that day.)
My son was transferred to Children’s Hospital by ambulance at approximately 7:30 p.m.. By the time they got on the roof, into the air, and landed at Loma Linda, it was 9:00 p.m... His breathing was labored.
X-rays were taken immediately. Dr. G showed us the pictures and told us that the reason he was breathing so hard was because he had lots of fluid behind his lungs. Plural Effusion. He told us that he would have to place a drainage tube into each side of our son’s chest. He explained the risks. We approved the procedure. 1100 cc’s drained out of our son over the next few hours, over 5000 cc’s over the next three weeks.
Our son also received emergency dialysis that night...(In my estimation) our son should have immediately been sent to Loma Linda. Or Children’s Hospital. Or UCLA. Any place where his medical needs, i.e., dialysis, could have been met as needed... Only in this case, there was no bed available and this meant our son’s condition would decline markedly while a search for a bed ensued.
9/15 Friday: Our first full day at Loma Linda. Chris received the much needed blood transfusion. He received dialysis again. He suffered from bad cramps and dry heaves for hours. He was absolutely miserable. After all, this was his eighth day in the hospital. He was absolutely exhausted.
As the day progressed, he got progressively worse. By evening, his chest was pounding. Harder and faster. Harder and faster. 130 beats per minute, 140, 150, 170, 180. At this point, Dr. T came to us and told us that Chris was now in danger of congestive heart failure—a heart attack. She informed us that modern medicine would now have to take over some of Chris’s bodily functions—he would have to be intibated to slow down his heart and let him sleep.
We were devastated. It seemed Chris was slipping further and further away.
(NOTE: We video-taped Chris lying in the bed, machines breathing for him. We were so angry. All because of...Doctors not talking to doctors.)
9/16 Saturday: It was now 2:00 a.m. The ventilator was managing Chris’s every breath. He was sedated. On this day he also received plasma, another blood transfusion, kidney dialysis. And much needed rest.
9/20 Chris would spend nearly five full days on the ventilator. His testicles grew to the size of a large grapefruit, his face and extremities were now puffed and abnormal. We stared at our son’s face, hour after hour, so swollen that we wouldn’t have recognized him on the street had he passed by in that condition...
From this point forward, days turned into weeks. Chris was taken off the ventilator after five days. He could not speak from a swollen throat, more drugs were administered to reduce the swelling. He had to wear a tightly fitted mask (By-Pap) over his mouth and nose, forcing oxygen deep into his lungs, due to a partially collapsed lung...
9/29 Chris had a seizure due to high blood pressure. He was again intibated. Cat Scan, EEG, MRI, more sedation, would follow.
10/1 He was taken off the ventilator at 11:45 p.m. Still suffering from abnormally high blood pressure. Taking medications to stabilize.
10/4 Chris was moved to Step-Down ICU. (two patients per room)
By mid-October, we were dealing with one final issue: his pancreas. Every attempt at feeding for seven weeks failed. His pancreas would have nothing to do with food. His lipase levels were abnormally high, indicating pancreatitis. In all, we would spend the next three weeks watching his lipase levels fluctuate each day, waiting for them to retreat to normal levels.
10/19 Loma Linda nephrology officially signed off on Chris’s case and turned his primary care over to Dr. S, gastro-intestinal specialist. However, Dr. S’s time would be limited. Kaiser notified Loma Linda that they would now recall Chris back to Fontana and turn his case over to their own gastro-intestinal specialist, Dr. H.
10/20 Chris was transported by ambulance back to Kaiser, Fontana. He ate for the first time on 10/26 and was released from the hospital on 11/2/06.
He had spent 8 full weeks in the hospital: Here is the timeline.
9/7 -- 9/10: Kaiser, Riverside. (3 days)
9/10 -- 9/11: Kaiser, Fontana. (1 day)
9/11 -- 9/14: Kaiser, Sunset (4 days)
9/14 -- 10/20: Loma Linda University Children’s Hospital (5 weeks)
10/20 -- 11/2: Kaiser, Fontana (2 weeks)
11/2 Chris began a four-week stay at home, recuperating and rebuilding his strength and weight. He complained of back pain—probably due to too many weeks of lying in a bed. He is now a patient of our family chiropractor and spinal adjustments have begun.
Tony stayed home with Chris during these four weeks. Mary returned to work on 11/6, having exhausted her sick leave.
11/27 Chris returned to school.
Reader Comments (29)
In 1987 my first wife was expecting twins and was heading into her ninth month when she went into premature labor.
The doctor in his wisdom decided to stop the labor with a drug (utopar).
She and the baby’s heart and blood pressure etc. would have to be monitored while on the drug. As explained at the time a common side affect was increased heart rate of both mother and babies.
Other drugs such as tylenol 3 were administered to offset the side affects of the utopar.
She experienced numbness throughout her body after receiving the tylenol so injections of demerol were substituted.
After several days the utopar was discontinued and she went immediately into labor.
She gave birth to a girl (Angela) and a boy (Jacob).
Two to three hours after the birth of the babies she began to experience difficulty breathing. A lung embolism was suspected, she was sent down for x-rays and after being returned to her room I noticed that she was incoherent and not responding well.
She was placed immediately onto a blood thinner (heparin). I queried the nurse about the use of the heparin, prior to having received the results of the x-rays, for it was at this point where I began to have an uneasy feeling that she may be bleeding into the brain. Past personal experience gave me good reason to suspect this.
Within minutes of having been put onto the heparin she began to wretch convulsively then went into a coma. The nurse immediately took her of the heparin, put her on a drug to counter the effect of the heparin and arrangements were made for air ambulance transfer to another hospital.
After performing surgery the neurosurgeon explained to me that he had found no sign of an aneurysm and could not explain why she had began to hemorrhage.
She was declared brain dead and passed away two days latter.
Angela weighed 5 lbs. 10 oz. and Jacob was 4 lbs. 2 oz. at the time of their birth. There were two other children at home, Rebecca who was seven years of age and Patrick who was five.
After two weeks in the hospital there was very little change in the babies weight due difficulties in their ability to digest the different formulas that they were being fed. Contrary to the advice of some I decided to bring the babies home.
Once at home and being an organic dairy farmer I fed the babies whole raw jersey milk mixed with raw honey and diluted with fresh spring water. Angela and Jacob will be 20 years of age on October, 3 of this year, they have not been vaccinated, have not seen a doctor since their birth and have not received prescription or over the counter medications of any kind.
The two eldest children on the other hand as a result of a desire to follow the doctor’s orders, were fed formula and vaccinated, they experienced recurrent ear and gastrointestinal infections accompanied by severe diarrhoea. They received antibiotics as well as numerous over the counter medications, have had tubes in their ears and were hospitalised due to the above infections.
I have since re-married and there are now nine children in the family, five of which are still at home. I make fresh yoghurt, cheese and butter weekly and we consume at least a gallon of raw jersey milk every day. For two decades or more there were three to five families who purchased raw milk from me on a daily basis with no ill affects.
Mary and Tony Martin’s story of their son was truly a gut wrenching one for me to read. However if someone were to ask me today if raw milk were a cause of disease, I would have to unequivocally say no.
Sincerely,
Ken Conrad
I am glad you are open to homeopathy and all it has to offer. Our health care system is in drastic need of fixing. If you need help contacting legislators to get health care reform, I will be there to help. We must do what we can to prevent this and other medical situations like this from happening.
Good Luck to you all.
I have a few questions. First, I just want to make sure I have some details correct:
I gather that there were 5 southern California children who became ill after consuming raw milk. In 4, the ecoli was identified and found to be somehow different that the spinach ecoli (but both were that deadly strain with numbers something like 0157H07). Lauren was one of these children, and the only one (other than Chris) to develope HUS. The 5th child was your Chris, and the pathogen was never identified in him. Correct?
If that is correct, I am just floored that they could not find the pathogen!
My questions are about the milk. Chris and Lauren consumed skim milk. How about the other 3 children. Do you know what type of milk they consumed? Did everyone shop at different stores and on different days?
What type of containers does the milk come in? Is it in glass bottles that you need to return, or some sort of disposable container?
Too bad you threw the milk out! How many days old was it when you tossed it? Did any of the 5 families have milk left in their fridge that was tested?
Elizabeth
I'm so sorry you lost your wife. I can't imagine how difficult the years following her death were for you and your children. You must be a very strong man.
You're an organic dairy farmer....just the person I've been looking for. I need to pick your brain about raw milk. My e-mail address is mmcgonigle11@verizon.net. Please e-mail me your telephone # and I will call you. Or I can give you mine. Whatever you are most comfortable with.
Mary
There were 5 childern in all who became sick from raw milk, but only 4 drank Organic Pastures milk. This was confirmed by Mark McAfee, owner of the farm.
Of the 4 children who drank Organic Pastures milk, 3 of the children had confirmed e-coli (the same blueprint), which means it came from the same source. This blueprint was not the same as the spinach. A reporter named Mark Arax, who works for the LA times, told us that all the children had the same blue print. He got this information from the State.
The bacteria was never isolated in Chris. And yes, I am also floored they weren't able to isolate it. In the first few days of his illness, numerous samples of his fecal matter were taken. It seemed like every few hours they said, "We need another sample." Tony and I were on poop patrol. We helped with the collection process.
So the facts are: 4 children drank Organic Pastures milk. 3 of the four had confirmed e-coli. 2 of the 4 developed HUS, Chris and Lauren.
All the products from Organic pastures were purchased in different stores and in different counties. Chris and Lauren drank skimmed milk, one boy drank colostrum, and I don't know about the other.
The milk comes in a hard plactic, disposable container.
I was able to retrieve the empty milk bottle (there still was a small amount of milk in the bottle) from the trash, along with the spinach which was still refrigerated. A public health nurse picked up the products to be tested. A few days later I received a call informing me they couldn't test our products because it was not confirmed that Chris had e-coli. They were only testing confirmed cases of e-coli. It was in the middle of the spinach outbreak and they were overloaded with too many products to test.
You have to have a good sense of humor in times like this. The irony of it all! You can only get HUS from e-coli or Shigella. Our products should have been able to move to the front of the line for testing.
I don't know about the testing of any other products.
Tony and I would like to educate the public about e-coli contamination; maybe some sort of public awareness campaign. There's another outbreak in Southern California--Soup Pantation. As of this morning, 7 people have become ill. We're just brainstorming at this time. How's this for a title? How to Survive the Hospital System If You Get E-coli: Dos and Don'ts.
The state had your milk and spinach, and didn't test them? THEY HAD YOUR MILK AND SPINACH, AND DIDN'T TEST THEM? This is outrageous. And by not giving you the samples back, they denied you the right to have them tested yourself!
Had they tested the food samples (in a timely manner) and found a toxin, would Chris have received the care he needed sooner?
I wonder how unusual it is for a hospital to test multiple contaminated stool samples, and not find the toxin.
Did the one child who drank raw milk from another farm have the same ecoli blueprint as the 3 other children who drank the Organic Pastures milk?
The fact that the boy who drank colostrum had the same ecoli blueprint as Lauren, who drank skim milk, makes me less sure that Organic Pastures was the source. These two products would have come from different cows, probably located on different parts of the farm, and probably milked with different equipment. The skim milk and colostrum are probably even bottled on different machines.
And if the boy who consumed milk from a different farm had the same ecoli blueprint as well, that rules out raw milk entirely for me. Raw milk contamination from pasture-based farms is so rare, that I can't even envision the odds of finding 3 cows, located in 3 different places, with the same genetic strain of ecoli in their manure.
And we haven't even touched on the fact that ecoli 0157H07 evolved in the acid rumens of grain-fed cattle. Has it ever been found in the manure of a pasture-fed animal?
I haven't given you any answers here, and I can certainly understand your desire to find them. I would want to as well, and I hope you do!
The outcome of which product was contaminated had nothing to do with his treatment plan. He had already been diagnosed with HUS and was on the respirator by the time we were attempting to have the food tested. We were already at Loma Linda Children's Hospital when they announced the spinach outbreak. At this time Chris was very critical, so it just didn't matter that they weren't going to test the food products. The only fighting energy we had at this time was for Chris.
As for the child that didn't drink Organic Pastures milk, I don't know if he tested positive for e-coli.
As for the milking of the cows, I don't have any knowledge on this subject. I do know that Mark McAfee invented a milking machine that goes out to the pasture to milk. As for how this all works, I'm not the one to address this subject. I don't know if milk goes directly into a bottle or if the cows are milked and the milk is mixed together before it is bottled.
Chris became ill from either the spinach or the milk. There wasn't anything else new in his diet that would have caused contamination. We don't each fast food. Chris is a VERY picky eater. He basically eats the same foods all the time, and he only eats foods purchased from Sprouts health food store.
This is why everything leads back to the milk. I don't know if you have gone to Organic Pastures website. Mark McAfee runs an amazing dairy. In theory, his milk should be clean....but it apprears that something is off enough to cause kids to become ill.
Our story was run in West magazine in December. It mentioned where we worked. A woman named Melissa contacted me. She wanted to let me know that both her young children got e-coli from drinking Mark's milk. This was in August of 2005.
I don't know what this all means. It just seems that we have raw milk and sick kids.
Infectious HUS can also be contracted from the environment - swimming, petting zoos, and even person-to-person contact.
Patients will generally stop shedding STEC after the diarrheal phase of the disease, but it sounds like many samples were collected before this ended in Chris' case.
Not testing the milk and spinach despite the negative lab results seems irresponsible, because HUS is a reportable disease.
Yes, I have been to Mark's web site and I have seen the mobile milking machine.
For those who don't know this, colostrum comes from the cow after giving birth, for just a few days. It is worth more money than milk. It wouldn't make sense to mix it with the regular milk from the mobile milking machine. I'm guessing they use a portable pump in the barn.
Did Melissa report her children's illnesses? I don't remember reading anything about them.Was her milk tested, or did they test the farm? I see now where you are getting your theory about ecoli/milk contamination and summer.
It is real important to know what ecoli the other boy (who drank milk from a different farm) had. The info could clear raw milk and Mark's farm (in terms of the 4 chidrem where the toxin was identified, but not for Chris.) For Chris, raw milk still seems like the main suspect (esp since you didn't like the smell).
But I have often wondered, does "bad" mean "bad for you" or just "undesireable". I can note that we have always discovered the bad milk by tasting it (my 3 children included) and have suffered no ill health effects.
I can't rule out mother's intuition in Mary's case however. Certainly, if something made me nervous, and then my child got sick, I would feel that my worst fears were now confirmed. Until I at least received evidence to the contrary, which she has not received
If "bad" means "sour" I would suspect harmless lactobacilli, so cooking it would be OK. Other than that, if bad equals unpleasant, I'd just throw it away.
As for Mary, I would submit that she does have some evidence to the contrary. Chris never tested positive for STEC, despite multiple tests. Organic Pastures never tested positive for E. coli, despite multiple tests. Those are two strong negatives.
That being said, E. coli outbreaks had contemporaneously been identified in produce, soil, cows, and water. The chain of events which led to the contamination of packaged raw spinach has never been resolved, despite extensive investigation, so why would you jump to the conclusion that milk was the cause just because 4 other children got ill? After all, hundreds of others - including adults - got ill in the same time frame due to produce. Chis never even tested positive.
Mary immediately informed the physicians that Chris drank raw milk to her credit and was made to feel sheepish. I think their perjorative bias against raw milk may be to blame for her "intuition" and some guilty feelings about milk being the cause of Chris' illness due to their perjorative response. Even so, Dr. A obviously took this information to heart and recommended that Chris be given no antibiotics. Whether Dr. A's advice was lost in the sauce or whether the reigning medical knowledge at the time was " antibiotic use for E. coli infection is still controversial", is unknown. You can readily see this ambiguity in the JAMA article she quotes.
Testing the food products in question could have potentially lifted the uncertainty from this whole ordeal. In my opinion, this is where the system really fell down. The public health system is way too overburdened. If their laboratories get overloaded this quickly, what's going to happen if a really sizeable epidemic comes along?
I don't see that the doctors in this case acted irresponsibly. They had no positive test - just a suspicion. Indeed, perhaps if Mary had said that Chris had eaten packaged raw spinach, they would have pricked up their ears and thought about HUS. As it is, it's not an easy diagnosis to make.
An article that more closely matches Mary's assertion about antibiotics is here http://www.aafp.org/afp/20060915/991.html
I wonder if you could give me some thoughts on the following:
The JAMA article makes it very clear that certain antibiotics do increase the incidence of e coli related HUS. The authors are unequivocal, clearly making the case that "best practice" means do NOT give antibiotics for e coli diarrhea.
With that said, I personally cannot be as confident of the findings as the authors because 1. It is first and foremost a human study, and like most if not all human studies is full of uncontrolled variables (many I'm sure not even suspected) and 2. The sample size is small, and does not represent a demographic cross-section. (Only 71 children were looked at, of which only 9 received antibiotics--hardly adequate to declare the end point of learning on this.)
Therein I think lies one of the serious problems with our healthcare system. We love to whittle down great things into the finest possible points. That may be understandable from our western, "evidence-based," we-need-controlled-factor-study-data perspective, but we should be able to admit that our tiny studies tell us only tiny things. Instead, we make sweeping generalizations based on them. That's one reason why "best practice" standards are in continuous flux. It also points to why physicians seem so often blind to the collateral damage caused by pharmacological and other interventions. They are focused on the trees, and cannot see the forest.
Good physicians however, do know about the difficulties in establishing firm rules about medical practice, and as a result they sometimes hold best-practice standards at arms length, especially when faced with potential tragedy in a patient. I can only sympathize with doctors who do that, because they run the risk of losing big no matter what the outcome. I don't know, but it is certainly possible that in Chris' case the doctors made considered decisions about risk and benefit, and decided to go with their intuition.
Please don’t get me wrong. I am not a supporter of AMA-style medicine as “healthcare.” I do (sometimes!) support it as “pathology care” but even that only up to a point. (If I get hit by a bus, please put me in the hands of a good AMA physician, but don’t let that same doctor determine how to keep my organs in optimal health!)
To me, the worst part of the medical-care story told by the Martins (aside of course from the illness itself and related fear and anxieties of parents and Chris) was the tedious, hurtful separation between the parents and the care-givers. Medical care today is often tangled in a dense bureaucracy. Can anyone justify that for any reason?
Last, I must add my voice to those doubting raw milk as the cause. So many good and legitimate questions about cause have been raised in this forum that, at very least, it seems like a terrible error to definitively proclaim raw milk the culprit, especially in headline fashion.
Here's another small point to add to the mix: Microbe contamination tends to spread throughout fluid products, and have limited spread in solid products (like, say, spinach, where a single contaminated leaf could conceivably exist in an otherwise clean bag). Negative testing of side-by-side samples such as was done with the milk, is meaningful. As I have said before, one would need to know more about the details than it may be possible to know in order to make a fair determination, and even then it might only be a best guess. Nevertheless I cannot help but have serious doubts in this case that milk was at fault.
This last year I've had a few run-ins with the "oustanding" and "prestigious" local clinic system contracted by our HMO to handle our health care, although none of the problems are due to our consumption of raw milk (I don't even dare mention raw milk in a medical setting because I know how it will "label" us).
If they aren't ignoring our medical history and not screening with tests that are more conclusive, they are messing up out medical files (I paid for a copy of my 10+ yr history with this clinic and it had four other peoples' records in my file!), or they try to prescribe inappropriate drugs.
I request copies of *everything* now, and have a notebook file for each member of the family. I prepare a page with a quick history of significant issues before each doctor visit, in case that doctor doesn't know the history and hasn't read the (sometimes thick) file. And I read each copy before I store them away, after my primary care phsician of 10 years dismissed my concerns on three different conditions for years, although she was willing to prescribe sleeping pills, anti-depressents and other other drugs to treat symptoms. I refused most of the drugs as I didn't think they would treating the underlying problems and would mask things. Finally, in frustration I got second and third opinions and have learned that one condition is so far progressed that surgery is required to correct it (pelvic prolapse) but it could have been treated with physical therapy and exercises in earlier stages if she had recognized it when I asked about it; that my chronic neck pain was osteoarthritis and a few sessions of physical therapy helped it tremendously, without medications; and that I *am* hypothyroid, probably have been for years, and am doing much better with a proper dose of the T4 & T3 thyroid hormone (my clinic's lab still uses an outdated reference range and no one appears to be aware).
Last year 8 yo son had a UTI due to dehydration on a camping trip, was treated and recovered, but they also did a kidney scan because UTIs are unusual in boys; some kidney reflux was noted. In order to make sure that urine that might be refluxing into the kidneys continued to stay sterile after treatment and not cause renal scarring, he was prescribed the standard protocol: a low dose antibiotics for one year (no mention of probiotics to go along with it, either). Both my husband (a research biochemist) and I were concerned about antibiotics, even low dose, for that long, and argued instead for monthly urinalysis as another way to monitor his urine status (of course we were concerned about making sure that his kidneys were not scarred by infected urinary reflux). The doctor finally agreed to make the standing urinalysis order and the urine has been tested and is fine for last 8 months without the antibiotics. But I was sort of made to feel like a loony for suggesting something other than the usual drug protocol (which I guess is cheaper in the short run for the "system", but has the potential to do great harm).
More recently, I have had to push my case to have my glucose metabolism tested properly (I have a gestational diabetes history). But because my fasting blood sugar is in the high "normal" end of the reference range and I do not present with obesity, nothing more has ever been assessed. Well, I lost my excess weight (only about 20#) and now maintain on a low carb diet, yet my numbers are "high normal" which suggests to me an impaired glucose metabolism considering I eat so little to raise glucose levels. So I tested myself with a personal glucose meter for three months. I get ok results with my low carb diet (though not as low as I think is healthiest), but I get diabetic readings after a test following a carb-rich serving. I presented my concerns and the data to my doctor during my annual exam recently. But because of overall good glucose control from a low carb diet, my fasting BG and A1C are just within the upper limit for "normal" (which isn't really normal according to much of the research literature, btw). My new doctor wasn't concerned at all, but at least humored me and ordered a glucose tolerance test and at my insistance, an insulin test. To his surprise, the results were exactly as I predicted, and with a very elevated insulin level to boot (long term chronic hyperinsulinemia is associated with a number of serious conditions, such as cardiovascular disease, etc.). He admitted he never would have predicted this based on my near- normal weight (I'm sure he thought I was a middle- aged hysterical hypchondriac). So, now I'm awaiting a consult with an endocrinologist for more testing to see how far I have progressed towards a T2 Diabetic condition that the "system" should have been monitoring the past 8 years (my SIL in Norway also had gestational diabetes and she gets a GTT every year to monitor her). Surely my low carb diet "treats" my impaired glucose metabolism to the point that the condition is not very obvious, but reserach shows that even folks on the Standard American Diet (SAD) are not diagnosed with diabetes until they have at least one serious complication, after years of damage from high blood sugar, despite frequent fasting blood sugar screenings (an imperfect screening test anyway - fasting insulin and post-meal glucose is much better). Yet everywhere in the media we hear that T2 diabetes incidence is on the rise (due to our lifestyle and diet predominately; early detection is important to avoid or delay complications or even to turn back the progression with the right lifestyle interventions; and those with certain risk factors (like family history or gestational diabetes) need to be screened more thoroughly. But it just isn't happening, the way I see it. Most people are just not as persistant and inquisitive as I am.
Absolutely, my ordeals with our medical care pale in comparison to what happened to the McGonigle-Martin family, but my point is this, even in routine and on-going care, we need to be squeeky wheels, follow our intuition, demand what's right, be informed (and not just by the popular media), and make sure we have the best understanding possible of what is being offered (and not offered) for our medical care. Sure, it won't be correct 100% of the time for a lot of reasons, but it surely could be better than what it is currently. Too much is just falling through the cracks in the so-called "best health care system in the world".
NEJM and JAMA both had articles by the same title. The link wasn't provided, so I searched by the title and came up mistakenly with the JAMA article. Sorry about that.
It is interesting, though, that the JAMA article was written after and includes the NEJM study. It's a meta-analysis of E. coli O157-H7 HUS cases identified in the literature from Jan. 1983 to Feb. 2001. It concludes "Our meta-analysis did not show a higher risk of HUS associated with antibiotic administration" The study was obviously much larger than the one in NEJM and was specific to E. coli-induced HUS. That being said, an even more recent (2006) article supports Mary's assertions. I wanted to make sure she had good evidence if she pursues this matter. I still think there's plenty of justification for the course of Chris' medical treatment, however.
Patients come in a broad continuum from medically savvy to totally uninterested. They also have more or lesser degrees of learning and health literacy. Belief systems also play a role. All this can hinder communication, and the fact that the medical staff - doctors, nurses, pharmacists, and lab techs - are overworked doesn't help. Trying to figure out what is wrong with an order-entry system or a Pyxis machine isn't what health-care workers were trained for, but now we have to deal with problematic technology too. Obviously, every patient should have focused, one-on-one attention from us, even for a brief period, so each of us can assess the entirety of what is going on with the patient and determine what our role should be in their care. The reality is the environment is often chaotic and there is scarce time and quiet afforded for thought. More and more, the emphasis seems to be on profit with expensive drugs, lab tests and procedures, but not quite enough low-tech face-time from practitioners.
I am old enough to have lived through the transition from treating patients to treating the government and other third parties. It has been a slow, relentless, frog-boiling kind of change, and no good has come of it (unless you are partial to fear, anger, tedium, high costs, waste, and homogeneity). Certainly we--patients and providers--have by now suffered enough with the mess.
Unfortunately the sustem is so big, so full of inertia, that there is little reason to expect meaningful change, short of complete system collapse. Should the system actually hit the dirt, we can only hope that sane voices will prevail in the re-building, to the effect that we emerge from the rubble with a more humane, and far more diverse, healthcare environment. The voices of people like the Martins will be very important then.
I am not new to raw milk. I'm 48 years old. From age 19-21, I used raw milk products. I also worked in a vitamin store. Health was my passion. The vitamin store was filled with hundreds of books. I'm sure I read everyone of them. All of my health knowledge is self-taught.
All these years later, health is still my passion. Our family seeks the services of a whole body dentist. Last summer, Tony and I had all our mercury fillings removed and we went on a cleansing diet. We own a infared sauna. Hormones are not my friend right now, so I'm seeking help from a naturopathic doctor. I'm sharing this so eveyone can get an idea about my life style and belief system regarding health and disease.
Back to the raw milk. I quit drinking raw milk in the early 1980's because Alta Dena Dairy had a salmonella outbreak and the dairy could no longer sell raw milk products. I was bummed because I believed in all the benifits raw milk had to offer.
Fast forward to the Spring of 2006. The health food store we shop at started carrying Organic Pastures milk. I remember thinking, "Raw milk is being sold again, cool!" I wanted to buy some right away, but remembered the reason Alta Dena could no longer carry it. I reached for a bottle and then said to myself, "What if it was contaminated?" I decided not to buy it. Every week I looked at it. Every week I thought about it and then didn't buy it.
At this time, Chris drank organic pasteurized milk. Every morning he work up congested. I didn't like it. I knew if he drank raw milk, it would put an end to this congestion.
In the summer, Tony and I started a cleansing program. We followed the Body Ecology Diet (also the title of the book) and took some herbal cleansing products. This book is filled with information about the positives of raw milk and keifer. My chiropractor informed me about Joe Mercolla's website and it's filled with more positive info about raw milk. I read and read and became excited about raw milk again.
I must of taken a bottle of raw milk off the shelf and put it back on the shelf at least 3 or 4 times before I decided to buy it. What finally convinced me to purchase it was Mark McAfee's website. He tests the milk. I felt safe.
The first two weeks, Chris drank whole milk. The last week, I accidently purchased skimmed milk....you know the rest.
Was my initial anxiety/caution regarding the purchase of raw milk left brain logic or right brain intuition/premonition?
Of course I've come to the conclusion that I didn't listen to my intuition. I never once felt good about giving Chris the raw milk, even though personally I never had a negative experience drinking it many years ago. I still think raw milk offers many health benifits. Chris' congestion did clear up, but I still felt uneasy everytime he drank it.
Dave Milano...I want to believe it was the spinach, but Lauren and Chris mirrored each other, except for presenting symptoms. Lauren had so much blood, Melissa had to put a pad on her. Chris had a small amount 1 time and then after that, traces of blood.
I actually think Chris could have had Shigella, but what are the chances that Chris would have Shigella and Lauren would have e-coli and the timeline of their illness would mirror each other? And where the hell would he get Shigella from? Raw milk?
I need answers, but I may never find them. If more kids get sick next summer from Organic Pastures milk, then unfortunatley Melissa and I will have our answer. I pray this isn't how we get it.
Elizabeth