Dialysis machines brought in to treat children in Calgary daycare E. coli outbreak

globalnews.ca:

More cases continue to be linked to the Calgary daycare E. coli outbreak.

And while some parents are having to watch as their kids are being hospitalized, other parents are taking action to seek restitution.

On Friday, Alberta Health Services said there were 142 lab-confirmed cases linked to the outbreak and 26 kids were stable in hospital – one at the Peter Lougheed Centre and the rest at the Alberta Children’s Hospital – and five patients had been discharged from hospital. On Thursday, the outbreak included 128 lab-confirmed cases and hospitals had 25 patients.

Calgary Zone medical officer of health Dr. Franco Rizzuti said 11 of those hospitalized patients have more serious illness than the bloody diarrhea that is part of a Shiga toxin-producing E. coli infection, which includes hemolytic uremic syndrome (HUS) and other complications.

“We continue to work to find the source of this outbreak, but have not yet pinpointed it,” Rizzuti said, noting the rate of cases is consistent with the working theory that a central kitchen is the source of the outbreak.

“We do anticipate that our case numbers will stabilize as we move into the weekend and next week.”

Rizzuti said a “small number” of kids were requiring dialysis, “however, this number is too small to provide for privacy reasons” and dialysis machines were brought in from other AHS sites in case they are needed in the coming days.

One of those children on dialysis is two-year-old Amelia Leonard.

Amelia’s father Ryan said it wasn’t until the second day of bloodwork that doctors caught any kidney dysfunction in Amelia.

“(Her kidneys are) not doing as much as they’re supposed to be doing,” Ryan told Global News.

He said his daughter was in good spirits the day before she was