Two Illinois Children Struck With E. Coli
COOPER: Every so often, a story comes along that puts a face on a deadly health threat. Tonight, we have a sobering one about the E. coli bacteria. Now, according to CDC, the most deadly strain of E. coli infects approximately 200 people every day. On average, there's at least one fatality every week. CNN's Keith Oppenheim visits an Illinois family that is coping with a rare double hit.</s>KEITH OPPENHEIM, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): In the small city of Effingham, Illinois, it is Christmas Day.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Is it time to go to</s>OPPENHEIM: Tina and David Lustig are playing with their two oldest kids, 10-year-old Charlie and 7-year-old Michael. On the mantle, two stockings hang for their youngest, Claire and Christopher. They're not home. They're both in a hospital, fighting for their lives.</s>TINA LUSTIG, MOTHER: Like the doctors said, you know, surely, you can't -- this can't happen to two children in the same family. And -- but it did.</s>OPPENHEIM: Two-year-old Christopher and his 4-year-old sister, Claire, got sick from a potentially deadly strain of E. coli bacteria known as</s>O157: H7. It's a strain that can be picked up from unpasteurized milk or unpurified cider. But it's most often found in ground beef that hasn't been thoroughly cooked.</s>T. LUSTIG: I have made Hamburger helper, but I don't undercook anything, because I'm a bad cook, unfortunately. And...</s>OPPENHEIM (on camera): But you don't -- so, you don't really have an idea of...</s>T. LUSTIG: No.</s>OPPENHEIM: .. how they got it.</s>T. LUSTIG: No.</s>OPPENHEIM (voice-over): On December 2, Christopher became sluggish. There was blood in his stool.</s>DAVID LUSTIG, FATHER: I told Tina, I said, you know, I haven't heard him talk. He hasn't talked in -- in -- all day.</s>OPPENHEIM: Doctors diagnosed Christopher with a condition called hemolytic uremic syndrome, or HUS, where the toxins of the E. coli strain cause red blood cells to rupture and kidneys to fail. He was taken to Cardinal Glennon Children's Hospital in Saint Louis, where he received dialysis. Then, 10 days after he was diagnosed, his sister, Claire, started to show the same symptoms. She, too, was diagnosed with HUS. While it's common for siblings or playmates of E. coli-infected children to get exposed, it is uncommon the infection would progress to the point that both kids would get critically ill.</s>DR. ROBERT LYNCH, CARDINAL GLENNON CHILDREN'S HOSPITAL: Very unusual. It's scary enough with one. To have both kids affected in this way is a -- a catastrophe.</s>OPPENHEIM: Just as Claire was admitted to the same hospital, Christopher became unresponsive.</s>D. LUSTIG: His head was, like, locked to the right. And his eyes were locked to the right. And he wouldn't -- you would talk to him and he wouldn't look at you. His eyes wouldn't follow you.</s>OPPENHEIM: Christopher had a stroke, always a potential danger with</s>HUS. T. LUSTIG: I felt like, in that room, in intensive care, that death was in the corner and just going to come out and take over.</s>D. LUSTIG: yes.</s>T. LUSTIG: It was all I could -- I -- and people say, I don't know how you do it. I don't know how -- well, I wasn't doing it that night. I wasn't...</s>OPPENHEIM (on camera): You were breaking down?</s>T. LUSTIG: Yes. I was breaking down. I wasn't any -- any source of strength for anybody at that point.</s>OPPENHEIM: In the following days, Claire and Christopher's condition stabilized. At the same time, doctors and health officials still don't know the original source of the E. coli infection. But, so far, there have been no other cases reported. Authorities believe the Lustig case is isolated. Still, for the children, there are questions about their recovery, particularly for Christopher, who may suffer permanent neurological damage.</s>T. LUSTIG: I'm worried that he won't walk again and that he won't...</s>D. LUSTIG: Won't talk.</s>T. LUSTIG: Won't talk.</s>D. LUSTIG: Won't see.</s>T. LUSTIG: And won't see.</s>OPPENHEIM: In the meantime, all David and Tina can do is go to the hospital and hope, as the new year approaches, both of their children will get a second chance. Keith Oppenheim, CNN, Effingham, Illinois.</s>COOPER: It's still a mystery how these kids got the E. coli. It's not a mystery how E. coli is spread. We wanted to bring in Dr. Sanjay Gupta to separate the facts and fiction about E. coli. Sanjay, thanks for joining us. True or false, most people get E. coli from eating undercooked, contaminated ground beef?</s>DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN SENIOR MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: That is true, Anderson. Most people do get it that way, but there are other ways you can get it as well, including swimming or drinking sewage-contaminated water, drinking unpasteurized milk as well. Those are some of the most common ways.</s>COOPER: Wait. You can actually get it swimming?</s>GUPTA: Yes. If it's -- if the water is sewage-contaminated, you actually get some of that water, you drink it inadvertently, you can get it that way as well.</s>COOPER: OK, but not in a pool?</s>GUPTA: As long as the pool is not contaminated for some reason. Usually, it's lakes or -- or...</s>COOPER: OK.</s>GUPTA: ... or places where there has actually been sewage.</s>COOPER: OK. True or false, you cannot get E. coli from anything that has been frozen?</s>GUPTA: That's actually false. And this is a common misperception. People think, you know, yes, if it's frozen, it's going to kill all the bacteria -- not necessarily so. Heat can often kill the bacteria, but not cold. And if you get some contamination on ice cubes, people actually putting their hands in ice, and then someone else does, and their hands were dirty, you can get it that way as well. It's pretty disgusting.</s>COOPER: OK. True or false, you cannot get E. coli from eating organic fruits and vegetables?</s>GUPTA: That is actually false, Anderson. In fact, you can get it from eating organic fruits and vegetables. Most people think of this bacteria with meat, but it actually can live in the soil as well. So, if these fruits or vegetables come out of the soil, somehow, they're contaminated with a bacteria, you can get it that way as well.</s>COOPER: True or false that all E. coli is bad for you?</s>GUPTA: That is false. In fact, there's lots of different variants of E. coli that are, in fact, not only good for you, but they're perfectly normal. They exist in your gut every single day. But this particular strain of E. coli that we have been talking about is the bad one. That is the one that can get you quite sick.</s>COOPER: All right, Sanjay, thanks.</s>GUPTA: Thank you.</s>COOPER: Well, coming up next tonight, panic at 26,000 feet. Two passengers describe what happened when a hole in the plane they were on nearly led to a disaster.