Was it the swimming pool, the goat or some food?

Heidi Moore of West Chester, Pennsylvania, doesn’t know, but is thankful her 3-year-old son is alive.

According to the Avon Grove Sun, Moore’s son, Dane, was stricken with hemolytic-uremic syndrome (HUS) after contracting an E. coli infection the first week of August while he and his family were vacationing at Ocean City, Md.

Dane became very sick soon after the family arrived. He began vomiting violently, had severe stomach pains and had bloody diarrhea. Heidi took him to a local urgent care center, and he was diagnosed with an ear infection. But after he showed no signs of improvement, she took him to the closest emergency center, in Berlin, Md. Doctors there realized the severity of Dane’s condition, and immediately airlifted him to DuPont Hospital for Children in Wilmington, Del., one of the best children’s hospitals in the nation.

By the time he got there, his condition worsened.

“Doctors just couldn’t figure out what was wrong with him,” Heidi said. “They thought it was appendicitis, colitis or Crone’s Disease. And then his kidneys shut down, and he stopped urinating and was put into the Pediatric Intensive Care Unit. That night he had seizures and was set up for dialysis.”

Dane spent three weeks in the Intensive Care Unit. Doctors told Heidi and her husband Jeff that it was touch and go, and warned them that he may not come out of ICU alive.

Heidi, an eighth-grade teacher in the Ridley School District, said she is now starting to deal with medical bills. The 50-minute medevac helicopter alone cost $50,000, she said.

To this day, Heidi said she doesn’t know where the E. coli came from. Her husband, and their sons, Chase, 8 and Brody, 6 all got it but were able to fight it off.

“I don’t think we’ll ever know,” she said. “He was in a swimming pool, touched a goat at the Goshen Fair, and the only common food was chicken nuggets (at a fast food establishment).”