Australian mother says infant caught salmonella from a shopping trolley – and days later was diagnosed with meningitis

Louise Cheer of Daily Mail Australia reports a mother-of-five has warned other parents to be wary of the hygiene of shopping trolleys after her 10-month-old son contracted a salmonella infection and meningitis.

salm-logan-wardropVivienne Wardrop, 35, went for a quick shop at Helensvale, on Queensland’s Gold Coast, on September 13 and took her baby boy with her, putting him in a trolley.

Almost 24 hours later, her son, Logan, started getting severe diarrhoea, vomiting and was running a high temperature.

At one point, the diarrhoea got so bad he started passing blood.

‘On Wednesday morning I got him out of bed and he had really bad diarrhoea. It had gone through his clothes and bedding,’ Ms Wardrop told Daily Mail Australia.

‘I gave him a bottle and he vomited it back up and this kept happening throughout the day.’

Ms Wardrop took her baby boy to the doctor who told her it was just a virus.

But by early Thursday morning, Logan was so dehydrated she had to take him to Gold Coast University Hospital.

His heart rate was up around 200 and 220 beats per minute – with a normal heart rate being around 80 – 140.

‘[The medical staff] were really good with him and started doing tests, ultrasounds, nasal swabs and urine testing – if it existed he had it,’ Ms Wardrop said.

Eventually doctors diagnosed him with adenovirus, rotavirus, salmonella and meningitis.

Daily Mail Australia has contacted the supermarket for comment on the matter.

Luckily Logan is now home from hospital but it will still be a while before he makes a full recovery.

Ms Wardrop said she had whittled it down to the shopping trolley because Logan had not eaten any normal food other than his formula that week and only had water leading up to his illnesses.

‘We spoke [with doctors] about who had been around, if they had been sick, where we had been, what he had eaten. We hadn’t been out of in the house in a week,’ the mother said.

Ms Wardrop said she did not blame the supermarket for her son’s illness but wanted to raise awareness about the hygiene of trolleys.

‘Us as parents need to think about it a lot more,’ she said.      

The mother-of-five felt so passionate about the issue that she posted a warning on Facebook to other parents.