After eating at McDonald's, a teenager suffering from E. coli struggles with kidney failure

In the days before Kamberlyn Bowler became ill, she went to McDonald's several times to enjoy her favorite meal: a Quarter Pounder with cheese and extra pickles. The previously healthy, active 15-year-old is now in the hospital battling kidney failure – a rare and potentially life-threatening complication of E. coli poisoning.

Kamberlyn, of Grand Junction, Colorado, is one of dozens of people who say they got sick after eating McDonald's Quarter Pounders. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, at least 75 people in 13 states have been infected with E. coli after eating at the fast food chain. One person died.

McDonald's says the most likely source of contamination is onion slivers served on its Quarter Pounders. The restaurant giant has removed onions from its menu. California-based onion distributor Taylor Farms said that while no specific ingredient has been confirmed as the cause of the outbreak, it “preemptively” recalled yellow onions from the Colorado facility that distributed products to foodservice customers.

In her first interview about her ordeal, Kamberlyn, a high school freshman, wiped away tears as she summed up what the last few weeks had felt like: “No fun,” she said over Zoom from her hospital room Monday afternoon.

Kamberlyn's mother, Brittany Randall, said her daughter's symptoms began this month with fever and stomach pain. Neither Kamberlyn nor Randall were too worried at first.

“We both kind of thought I just had a fever, like the flu or something — a gastrointestinal illness,” Kamberlyn said. “But then I started vomiting, had diarrhea and it was bloody, so it scared me.”

Randall took Kamberlyn to the doctor and then to the emergency room for some scans, which didn't reveal anything significant, she said. But Kamberlyn wasn't feeling any better at home.

“I think it was on the sixth day when she said, 'Something's wrong.' I do not feel good. “I have to go back to the hospital,” Randall said.

This time, the tests showed something worrisome: Kamberlyn had an E. coli infection so severe that she was suffering from kidney failure. On Oct. 18, she was flown to Children's Hospital Colorado outside Denver, where she has remained since.

“It's definitely been a roller coaster ride from the time we got here to now. Every day there’s new tests or new things that come up, or it’s basically watching their body just not work,” Randall said.

Kamberlyn was diagnosed with enterohemorrhagic Escherichia coli-associated hemolytic uremic syndrome (HUS), which can occur when E. coli bacteria attack the kidneys. She received several rounds of dialysis in the hospital.

Randall said her daughter's kidneys were showing “some signs” of working again, but it was not clear how much permanent damage there would be.

“We're not really sure what's going to happen for her,” she said, adding, “She'll probably have to do another round of dialysis.” We hope this is the last time, but we don't know either and we don’t know if there will be problems in the future.”

Kamberlyn and Randall plan to sue McDonald's and have hired an attorney who has already filed two lawsuits on behalf of other clients. But for now, they're focused on Kamberlyn's recovery.

Symptoms usually appear three to four days after eating contaminated food in most people infected with E. coli and include severe stomach cramps, diarrhea and vomiting, according to the CDC. Most infected people recover within a week without treatment.

But a very small percentage of patients – estimates vary, some as low as 2% – develop HUS.

People who are very young or very old are most susceptible to HUS, said Dr. Nicole Iovine, chief epidemiologist at UF Health Shands Hospital in Florida, who is not treating Kamberlyn.

“It is a rare complication, but it can certainly happen. Unfortunately, some people experience reduced kidney function or permanent kidney failure,” she said.

Before she contracted E. coli, Kamberlyn had no underlying health conditions and she exercised regularly and played softball — all factors that should help her recover from HUS, Iovine said.

“It’s unpredictable and the patient’s pre-existing health condition is really important,” she said.

The experience was frightening for Randall, who said she was grateful that Kamberlyn realized something was very wrong.

“If she had waited, if I had waited longer, she couldn't be here now,” Randall said. “She was no longer super healthy and had no problems at all, to the point of potentially lifelong kidney damage.”

McDonald's said in an email that it is “devastating for us to hear reports like Kamberlyn's.”

“We know that people and families have been significantly impacted, and we care deeply about the well-being of our customers,” the email said.

In a video released Sunday, Joe Erlinger, president of McDonald's USA, vowed to regain customer trust.

“On behalf of the McDonald's system, I want you to hear from me: We are sorry,” he said in a video posted Sunday. “For the affected customers, I promise that we will find a remedy, guided by our values.”

Ron Simon, a national food poisoning attorney who represents Kamberlyn and 32 other McDonald's E. coli outbreak victims from 10 states, said he has received hundreds of calls from people since news of the outbreak spread.

“There will be many more cases than 75 in this outbreak,” he said, referring to the CDC’s most recent case count. “Much more, without question.”

Simon said he plans to file Kamberlyn's lawsuit this week. Of the people he represents, he said, nine were hospitalized and another was infected with HUS.

“We hope that through this and other lawsuits we can find out exactly where the disruption occurred so we can fix it and make sure it doesn't happen to anyone else,” he said.