7-year-old sickened with E. coli

A Rochester, Minn. family is asking for support as their young daughter battles an E. coli infection and a potentially life-threatening complication.

charlotte-vossAccording to a Gofundme page, Charlotte Voss contracted the O157-H7 strain of E. coli while visiting her grandmother in Nebraska earlier this month. Charlotte was first treated at a clinic in Nebraska before being transferred to Mayo Clinic in Rochester. She was admitted to Mayo’s Eugenio Litta’s Children’s Hospital July 23.

Charlotte’s condition continued to worsen and she developed HUS, a very serious and potentially life-threatening complication known as Hemolytic uremic syndrome. According to Mayo Clinic, it affects only 5%-10% of those who are diagnosed with STEC infection. HUS is “a condition that results from the abnormal premature destruction of red blood cells. Once this process begins, the damaged red blood cells start to clog the filtering system in the kidneys, which may eventually cause the life-threatening kidney failure associated with hemolytic uremic syndrome.”