Home | Business News | Browse by Publication | T | The Register-Guard (Eugene, OR)

Back from the BRINK.

Article Excerpt
Byline: Randi Bjornstad The Register-Guard

Lane County officials breathed a sigh of relief in October when 23 plaintiffs - mostly parents of children who contracted E. coli infections at the 2002 Lane County Fair - dropped their lawsuit against the county, two weeks before trial.

They no doubt relaxed again earlier this month when the statute of limitations deadline expired, barring any of the victims of the outbreak - including the lone holdout from the lawsuit - from suing the county again in the matter.

But if the county, free from the legal threat of financial obligation for the episode, now can put the unpleasantness behind it, many of the families whose children endured life-threatening cases of the illness say they cannot.

Some still struggle financially because of the out-of-pocket expenses they incurred for medical and other services during their children's treatment at hospitals in Eugene or Portland. Even more serious, at least four of the dozen children hospitalized following the E. coli outbreak face the possibility of future kidney failure - even the necessity of an organ transplant - as they approach adulthood.

The parents also say that despite improved signs and the installation of hand-washing stations at the Lane County Fair since 82 people contracted E. coli traced to the fair two years ago, they fear another outbreak may happen eventually.

Because the Lane County outbreak may have been caused, at least in some cases, by airborne bacteria directly breathed in or ingested by those taken ill, relying on hand-washing isn't enough to prevent future tragedies, these parents believe. One way to curb the disease might be to exclude cud-chewing animals - E. coli epidemics nearly always trace back to cattle - from county and state fair exhibitions, where there are so many infants and children, who are particularly susceptible to E. coli.

"Until you stand in an intensive care unit, holding your 18-month-old and not knowing if he will live or die, you can't know what it was like to go through this," said Tom Keating, whose twin toddlers contracted the illness at the fair, Sean mildly and Ryan severely.

The experience "reshaped my views of a lot of things," Keating said, including laws such as those in Oregon "that shelter public agencies from liability so that these tragedies can keep on happening."

Some county officials acknowledge they feel uncomfortable with laws that protect the county while...

View this article FREE - Now for a Limited Time, try Goliath Business News
Free for 3 Days!