A parent’s nightmare on a Christmas Eve

I am working on yet another E. coli HUS case linked to a food product that should never had been tainted in the first place.  I had asked a parent of a client to give me a sense of the worst of the many bad times.  I deleted information that could identify the case.

On Christmas Eve, I went home to try to make something of the holiday for our _____ year old _____, _____.

_____ stayed with _____ and called me shortly after I got home.

_____ said that _____ was having seizures and I should come back to the hospital right away.

Driving on the _____ on the way to the hospital, I got another call from _____. They were doing chest compressions on _____…

… I have never driven so fast in my life. I pulled up to the hospital and left my car right at the door with the keys in it, and ran to the PICU.

The doors were locked at the entrance and the receptionist had stepped away.

I was desperately pounding on the doors to be let in.

I thought _____ had died.

As a father of three daughters, I honestly cannot imagine the horror of this situation.  E. coli and HUS already leaves you helpless – I am not sure how someone recovers from this.

Republished with permission from Bill Marler and Marler Clark. Copyright (c) Marler Clark LLP, PS. All rights reserved.