E. coli Death in Massachusetts Remains Unexplained
The death of a six-year-old Massachusetts boy is being blamed on the Hemolytic Uremic Syndrome (HUS), a disease linked to E. coli, although the circumstances behind how he got the disease remain a mystery.
The boy, Owen Carrignan, who passed away on May 26, has been described by his family as healthy and active. His loved ones are now struggling to understand how he could have died from the disease, NBC News reported.
"It should never happen, you know? A six-year-old boy full of life," said Todd Carrignan, Owen's uncle. The boy was active and even played soccer just a few days before the disease took his life.
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"They brought him to the hospital on Monday and it just progressively got worse from there," Carrignan added.
The State Department of Public Health (DPH) revealed that E. coli was behind the boy's death, suggesting that he contacted it from something he ate.
It is an explanation that does not sit well with his family, however.
"We can't think of anything he ate that the rest of the kids didn't eat. And why it would just affect him, I don't know. But we have no idea," the uncle expressed.
"I was absolutely devastated to think that that would happen in this day and age, and so quickly. And such a precious little boy," said Lynne Francolini, a neighbor. A scholarship in Owen Carrignan's name at a local credit union is being started by his family.
The Department of Health is treating his case as an isolated incident, but an investigation is ongoing to make sure there is no outbreak of the disease.
A serious outbreak of E. coli in Germany in the summer of 2011 caused 48 deaths and left a total of 3,901 seriously ill.
