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By Sophie Planos
A high school freshman in Colorado has been hospitalized with a rare and dangerous complication of E. coli poisoning. Kimberly Bowler, 15, said that she went to McDonald's several times for her favorite meal: a quarter pounder with cheese and extra pickles before becoming ill. She is now hospitalized and battling kidney failure, a rare and potentially life-threatening complication of E. coli poisoning. Kimberly is only one of the dozens who have said they became sick after eating McDonald's Quarter Pounders. According to the ¨Centers for Disease Control and Prevention ¨ at least 75 people across 13 states have been infected with E. coli, and one person has even died.
Kimberly's mother, Brittany Randall, said that Kimberly's symptoms started with a fever and stomach pain, neither of them was too concerned at first. Symptoms started to get worse, Brittany took her daughter to the emergency room for scans, but nothing significant showed, so they went back home. On day six, Kimberly told her mom ¨something is not right. I don't feel good. I need to go back to the hospital.” This time, the tests showed an E. coli infection so severe that she was in renal failure. On Oct. 18, she was airlifted to Children’s Hospital Colorado outside Denver, where she has remained ever since. McDonald's said that the most likely source of the contamination was ¨slivered onions served on its quarter pounders¨ the restaurant giant has now removed the onions from its menu items. The distributor of the onions, California-based Taylor Farms, said that ¨. At the same time, no specific ingredient has been confirmed as the source of the outbreak, it has ¨preemptively recalled¨ yellow onions from the Colorado facility that distributed produce to food service customers.¨
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