What you need to know about E. coli O157:H7 and acute kidney failure – hemolytic uremic syndrome (HUS) – see www.about-hus.com and www.about-ecoli.com.

WTVG TV reports that a 9-year-old from Lucas County now sits in a Columbus hospital on dialysis. The latest person suffering from that E. coli outbreak that’s stretched into 4 states.

It’s expected to be a long road to recovery with the illness already sapping most of his energy each day. What was first to believe a typical stomach bug for Carter Tebay, 9, wasn’t getting better and test results were looking worse. 

It was finally determined that dialysis at a hospital in Columbus was the best way to treat an illness getting more and more aggressive.

Investigators from the CDC and health leaders locally have narrowed the possible source of this E.coli outbreak to lettuce served at Wendy’s restaurants in Pennsylvania, Ohio and Michigan. That portion of the story is the least concerning to the Tebay family and Carter. 

 “His blood results came back and his blood platelets were extremely low and there were some concerning toxins in his blood that they determined that there were issues with his kidney,” said Brittney Tebay.

The family did visit a Wendy’s location recently and their son started vomiting in early August and it went on for days. As test results looked more serious and E. coli was confirmed. He’s now on dialysis. 

“Exhausted. All he wants to do is sleep. We have trouble getting him to stand up,” said Tebay. 

The normally energetic soccer, baseball and cross-country athlete and his family are hopeful for a full recovery. 

“They are on dialysis and regular monitoring for weeks to a month and then they do generally see that the kidneys make a full recovery it’s just a long slow road,” said Tebay.

Those cases of E.coli are growing throughout our region. Wood County is reporting 22 cases. Lucas County now telling us they have 11 cases.

In Ottawa County they have one suspected case and in Hancock County they’re now dealing with 2 possible cases, but more testing is now underway.