Jillian's Story

In 2006, I had the life of a busy 24-year-old graduate student. I was taking classes, working two jobs and trying my best to stay healthy. I was running three to four times a week, training for my third marathon; so it was important for my meals to be healthy and to be relatively easy to prepare.

The first Wednesday of school I made myself a large spinach salad using bagged spinach, loving how quick and easy it was to make a healthy salad.  The very next day I woke up feeling tired and sluggish, and by Friday I was so worn down I thought I was getting sick.  I chalked it up to putting myself through the ringer with training, work, and school, and figured I should probably be getting more sleep. But by Saturday I developed really bad cramps, felt nauseous and had a low-grade fever. On Sunday the diarrhea began, and by Monday morning I was going to the bathroom every 15 minutes and my stools had turned to nothing but pure, bright red blood.

Somehow I managed to drive myself to the ER. The doctors hooked me up to an IV, told me I probably just had food poisoning and that I was dehydrated--no big deal.  They never even checked my stool for what was making me sick. I was given a prescription for pain medication, an antibiotic (which I later found you're not supposed to take if you have E. coli) and was sent home.

As I walked through the hallway over to the hospital pharmacy, I felt weak and dizzy.  While waiting for my prescriptions, I was amazed that I had to go to the bathroom (again!).  As I opened the door to leave the bathroom, I had a rush come over me and I blacked out.  I was taken back to the ER and admitted to the hospital for observation. After many tests were performed and several days had passed, I was diagnosed with E. coli O157:H7.  By this time the E. coli had begun to take its toll on my organs at a rapid pace.  My red blood cells and platelets were dropping quickly.  The pain was excruciating.  My mind was out of it.  My kidneys were failing.

I remember being in constant pain.  Whenever a doctor asked me what my pain felt like on a scale of 1 to 10, I always said a 10 or higher.  I was delusional.  My mom told me that I kept thinking she was my 15-year-old cousin, or that I would tell her crazy things. My entire body would go through spasms.  My pancreas was starting to fail and the doctors feared my liver would be next. I was constantly vomiting and my legs were so swollen the doctors put cast-like devices on them to attempt to keep the swelling down.  I was getting plasmapheresis treatments every day, and dialysis every other day. It was at that point I remember wondering if I was going to die.

My family went through this trauma with me.  I spent 17 days in the hospital and nearly died. My Mother slept next to me every night in an uncomfortable chair and the hospital lounge became a temporary home for my Dad and my siblings.  They even brought their sleeping bags. All of our lives were thrown into chaos.

While I was suffering a life-threatening illness in the hospital, the media began to report the possibility that there was a spinach outbreak and the health department had begun to record a high number of cases from the same E. coli bacterial strain associated with spinach.

Upon my discharge from the hospital, my kidneys were only functioning at 8 percent of their normal output. A marathon runner a month earlier, I now had trouble walking up a few stairs.  I was tired, week and nauseous. It took a lot of internal strength to train for my past marathons and I relied on that strength to help me recover from this traumatic ordeal. One of my doctors reminded me that recovering was like a marathon. It wasn't going to happen all in one day and I would need to be persistent. I would have to build my endurance slowly, and one mile at a time.

It has been almost two years since I was sick and my illness changed my perspective on life dramatically.  The illness affected my health, my life, and scared my family and friends. I'm extremely lucky to have recovered.   I will never be the same person I was before this happened. I think of how innocent I used to be when I would buy bagged spinach at the grocery store and not think twice about it.  Now, I'm much more hesitant. I shop through the produce section with more skepticism.  I no longer assume food is safe.