[Foundation-l] California E. Coli Epidemic Reaches Wikipedia Community

[Jeffrey V. Merkey]

My 2 year old son, Alexej Martin Merkey, was admitted to Primary 
Childrens Hospital in Salt lake City this afternoon in
Serious condition due to our family (and others in Utah) getting exposed 
to this virulent strain of E. Coli from California
on contaminated Spinach.   We had some of this crap in our house and 
alexej ate a some of it, as did my wife and I. 
They have 14 cases here at present of children 2 and under, and one of 
them has died (from Idaho). 

Alexej's photo is here http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:Jmerkey if 
folks don't know who he is.

Alexej's platelet count was at 83 which is very high (most of them are 
below 20 due to the damage caused by the toxins from this strain) and
they feel he will pull through, but his kidneys were having problems 
late this evening and they told me they might have to put him on 
dialasys over the weekend.  He was not feeling too well, and its always 
rough for a 2 year old to have to go through something like this.   They 
tell me the entero-toxins from this virulent strain of E. Coli cause a 
lot of damage and the next two days will be bad for him.

Both my wife and I appear to also have been infected, but since we are 
adults, out systems dealt with it more effectively.

Bottom line, DONT BUY OR EAT ANY SPINACH FROM CALIFORNIA FOR NOW.

All my love.   Hopefully, he will home soon.  

Jeff