Tag Archives: Death

Six-year-old girl dies from E. coli in Germany

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The translation is rough and details sketchy, but Focus is reporting a 6-year-old girl from Hamburg died over the weekend from the effects of EHEC, which probably means some strain of shiga-toxin producing E. coli.

A spokesman for the Health Authority of the City of confirming the news agency on Sunday evening, a case of illness with the pathogen.According to the newspaper "Die Welt" on Monday, the child died in the early hours of Sunday. The first grader had shown since the beginning of last week, symptoms of infection with the aggressive food germ, the head of a primary school in Hamburg-Blankenese said on Sunday. She was treated at a hospital. Apparently it was an isolated case

"This is an isolated incident," said the spokesman. "It is not at all comparable to the situation last year" (meaning sprouts and E. coli O104, in which 53 people died).

BC woman tormented by lack of answers over mother’s E. coli-related death

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 Madeline Jonah, 80, died after eating E. coli tainted food at a British Columbia (that’s in Canada) nursing home in Nov. 2011 her family is still seeking answers.

The Province reports that Kiwanis Park Place, a White Rock independent living facility was found in violation of a number of food-preparation standards weeks before the victim and two other seniors fell ill.

Langley woman Kathy Jonah says she has been tormented by a lack of answers and empathy from officials after her mother died.

“I just want someone to be accountable,” Kathy Jonah said. “The management [at Kiwanis Park Place] hasn’t called me back, and they haven’t offered me an apology or anything. It’s like a slap in the face.”

Kiwanis Park Place, a subsidized independent-living complex operated by Crescent Housing Society, offers food services under the licensing of Fraser Health Authority.

An investigation by the authority determined that the three seniors were likely infected with E. coli because of the facility’s food preparation, inadequate cooking or improper cleaning of food surfaces.

Fraser Health spokesman Roy Thorpe-Dorward said Crescent Housing Society voluntarily ended its food-services program, so there will be no further probes into the outbreak. The facility had no previous E. coli issues, Thorpe-Dorward said.

Jonah said that because of B.C.’s wrongful-death laws she has no way to hold anyone accountable.

Ben Doyle of the Trial Lawyers Association of B.C. says family members can’t effectively sue for damages in the deaths of children, seniors and the disabled, because the law only accounts for damages for loss of income support.

“We have legislation that makes children, seniors and people with disabilities worthless,” he said. “We’re pushing for legislation that respects the lives of all individuals and not just breadwinners.”

Officials with Crescent Housing Society did not answer interview requests on Monday.

‘A deadly mistake’ Chinese restaurant remains closed after fatal death cap mushroom meal

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The killer mushroom story from Canberra, Australia is taking on new levels of weirdness.

Today, the ACT’s chief health officer confirmed the bistro where a deadly mushroom dish was cooked on New Year’s Eve would remain closed and would need to be inspected before it was allowed to reopen.

The Chinese restaurant, located in the Harmonie German Club in Narranbundah, had been due to reopen after the Christmas break on Wednesday night, just hours before management learnt of the tragic mistake, in which two people died and two others were taken to hospital after eating the dish laced with death cap mushrooms.

Canberra health authorities last night confirmed the meal was prepared in a restaurant kitchen.

Acting ACT Chief Health Officer Dr Andrew Pengilly said that, while the bistro had closed voluntarily, ACT Health had asked for it to remain shut until an inspection could be carried out.

Last night, a sign on the door of the restaurant, which is run by an independent operator within the club, said the chef "made a deadly mistake."

The sign said that it was informing the community with the "greatest regret" that chef Liu Jun and kitchen hand Tsou Hsiang "made a deadly mistake and ate some mushroom (death caps) that they mistook for Chinese straw mushrooms".
It was unclear who had posted the note, but Harmonie German Club secretary Susan Davidson confirmed it had not come from the club nor the independent operator of the restaurant.

Mr Liu, 38, who made the meal at the bistro, and Ms Tsou, 52, died from liver failure in Sydney’s Royal Prince Alfred Hospital while waiting for transplants.
Mystery surrounds another man, 51, who remains in the hospital in a stable condition with death cap poisoning.

ACT Health initially said this man was part of the same group, but ACT police said this was not the case.

Friends of the chef, who had spent several years working in Australia, said he was obsessed with fresh food. He was also working to send money home to his Chinese wife and two children, a seven-year-old boy and a girl, 11.

"The mushrooms were brought into the club for a private meal, cooked after bistro hours, by the chef for him and his co-workers. It was not a meal on the bistro menu and was not a meal that was offered to, or available to, the public," it added.

UK grandmother dies from salmonella in sprouts Aug. 2010; inquest blames poor labeling guidelines?

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The death of a Jewish grandmother who contracted salmonella from bean sprouts should force national changes to food labelling to prevent further deaths, a coroner has ruled.

A four-day inquest into the death of René Kwartz, from north Manchester, concluded that the 82- year-old was infected by salmonella, in bean sprouts served at a Jewish wedding in August 2010. It had been alleged that the wedding’s caterer, Shefa Mehadrin, had neglected food safety standards.

But on Dec. 8, 2011, the inquest’s jury unanimously returned a verdict of death by natural causes.

During evidence from Bury Council’s environmental health investigators, it emerged that no fault was found with the caterer, but that serving instructions on the bean sprout packages used at the wedding, were misleading.

Manchester Coroner Nigel Meadows said he would push the government and the Food Standards Agency to review cooking guidelines on bean sprout packaging. The agencies must report on what action will be taken within 56 days.

Concluding the inquest, Mr Meadows said: "It seems that clarity on the cooking of this product could be easily achieved.

A table of sprout-related outbreaks is available at http://bites.ksu.edu/sprouts-associated-outbreaks.

Finnish woman dies of botulism after eating organic olives

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An elderly woman has died as a result of botulism poisoning, produced by the bacterium Clostridium botulinum, after eating some Italian olives that contained the toxin.

According to the Helsinki and Uusimaa Hospital District, she succumbed to the illness on Thursday.

Another adult member of the same family remains in hospital.

Prior to their illness, both had eaten from a jar of stuffed organic olives, which was subsequently discovered to contain the toxin, as reported by THL, the National Institute for Health and Welfare.

The olives in question were manufactured and packaged in Italy, and the jar contains the Finnish wording "Gaudiano Bio oliivi mantelitäytteellä" (Gaudiano Organic Olives Stuffed with Almonds).

The best-before dates on the product are 08/2012 or 09/2012 and the batch numbers H2510X or L1810X.

Cantaloupe with listeria grown in Colorado, outbreak possibly linked to 3 deaths and 6 illness in New Mexico

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Colorado health-types said today that the cantaloupe suspected in a listeria outbreak that has sickened at least 11 in Colorado, two in Texas and one in Nebraska and killed one, was grown in the Rocky Ford region of Colorado.

Dr. Chris Urbina, chief medical officer and executive director of the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment, said people at high risk for infection should avoid consuming cantaloupe, including people over 60, people with weakened immune systems, and pregnant women.

New Mexico health officials also said today three people have died and six others are ill with listeria that preliminary testing has linked to contaminated cantaloupe.

Molecular fingerprinting tests at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention are under way to determine if the cases are part of the same outbreak.

What isn’t clear from reports to date is whether the culprit is whole cantaloupe or fresh-cut – the stuff in the plastic containers at retail. Or maybe I missed something.

A table of cantaloupe- (or rock melon) related outbreaks is available at http://bites.ksu.edu/cantaloupe-related-outbreaks.

Cantaloupe likely source of fatal listeria outbreak in Colorado

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 All the warnings about the usual listeria suspects – deli meats, soft cheeses, unpasteurized milk – apparently didn’t help contain the listeria outbreak in Colorado: cantaloupe has been identified as the "likely source" of what is now a multi-state listeria outbreak.

The Denver Post reports that nine listeria cases in Colorado have been linked to a multi-state outbreak, which includes potentially related cases in Texas and Nebraska, according to the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment.

Two people in Colorado died from listeriosis, but only one of those two cases has been linked to the multi-state outbreak.

All nine of Colorado’s confirmed linked cases consumed cantaloupe, the release said. No specific source of the contaminated product has been identified.

"While the investigation into the source of the listeria outbreak is continuing, it is prudent for people who are at high risk for listeria infection to avoid consumption of cantaloupe," said Dr. Chris Urbina, chief medical officer with the state health department.

A table of cantaloupe- (or rock melon) related outbreaks is available at http://bites.ksu.edu/cantaloupe-related-outbreaks.

Listeria outbreak grows to 13 in Colorado, four more cases ID’d

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 An apparent outbreak of listeria in Colorado grew to 13 cases over the weekend, including two deaths since Aug. 1.

The Denver Post reports in an earlier outbreak, in June, two people diagnosed with the infection died.

Has DNA fingerprinting linked the June cases with the ost recent outbreak?

The cause of the most recent outbreak is still under investigation and there is no clear link between the cases, said Mark Salley, spokesman for the Colorado Department of Public Health and Safety.

Colorado averages about 10 cases of listeria per year.

Jetstar passengers offered vouchers after man ‘chokes to death on in-flight meal’

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 Choking on food is a well-recognized, if underdocumented, hazard.

And although daughter Courtlynn had her Los Angeles wait time extended from a scheduled five hours to 12 hours, she didn’t have to endure a dead body.

Jetstar passengers were offered a $100 travel voucher after a man died on a flight from Singapore to Auckland, N.Z. last week.

Hamilton city councillor Ewan Wilson, a former pilot and Kiwi Air founder, said he watched in horror as Robert Rippingale’s body was carried away and put in a crew restarea for the remainder of the long-haul flight.

What caused his death is now the subject of a coronial inquest, but reports have said Rippingale choked to death on a meal.

His girlfriend, Vanessa Preechakul, 27, told the New Zealand Herald how she sat next to his body for the duration of the flight.

A doctor on board pronounced Mr Rippingale dead 90 minutes after take-off.
"One minute we were sitting next to each other kissing, holding hands and the next minute he was choking," Ms Preechakul said at his funeral, yesterday.

2 dead 7 sick in Colorado listeria outbreak

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State health department officials are worried about a sudden listeria outbreak in late August and have renewed warnings about eating soft cheeses, meat spreads, undercooked hot dogs and other potentially dangerous foods.

Two people have died from the latest outbreak of the gastrointestinal illness that began in August. The department reported in June that two other people had died in a previous listeria outbreak, bringing the total of deaths this summer to four.

The two August deaths came amid a rush of nine cases, compared to an average of two cases reported for the month in other years. Seven of the nine newest listeria illnesses have been reported since Aug. 29.