Days after visiting a petting zoo at a pumpkin patch before Halloween, Emma Heidish was in the hospital. Almost a month later, her family is grateful she will spend Thanksgiving at home.

Heidish was one of 3 people who got sick after visiting Dehn’s Pumpkins in Dayton, Minn., but while the others were able to recover at home, her case was severe.

Like many 7-year-olds, Heidish loves animals, but after what she’s endured, her opinions about her favorite farm animals have changed.

“They are the ones that made me sick!” she explained.

Within days of visiting the pumpkin patch in mid-October, stomach cramps and diarrhea landed Heidish in the intensive care unit.

For a month, the little girl fought through a form of kidney failure that required her to undergo surgery and near-constant dialysis because her digestive system basically shut down.

The family is also bracing for the bill. Even though they have health insurance, they’re not sure what a month-long stay in the ICU will cost them. Friends have organized two fundraisers to offset the coasts and have established a fund for the family.

For more information on the benefit’s and more ways that you can help visit: www.emmasfund.com

As for Dehn’s farm, the owners still aren’t sure what they’ll do with the livestock next year because E. coli can simply be in an animal’s fur or the pen they’re kept in, but the Heidish family says they just want to stress the importance of hand washing.

Handwashing is never enough when it comes to human-animal interactions. My colleagues and I have a paper on best practices that will hopefully be published soon.
KMSP-TV