Food Safety Action- Rylee’s Mom Speaks Up
Posted November 2nd, 2009 by Kathleen ChrismerA few years ago my life was much like the lives of many other mothers across the United States. Most of my waking hours were consumed with my job and taking care of my family. There were times when my daughter Rylee, now 12 years old, would spend the evening in a sleeping bag near my desk at work. I thought I was doing pretty well keeping up with what was going on in the world by reading the newspaper and watching the news. Needless to say, I hardly had the time to engage in political activism.
But then Rylee got sick – and my perspective changed.
More than three years ago, for her 9th birthday, my husband Matt and I took Rylee on a trip to northern California. The morning after we arrived in Monterey for a visit to the aquarium, Rylee woke up complaining of a severe stomach ache and diarrhea. I took her to the nearest urgent care facility, and within 48 hours, she was in the pediatric intensive care unit at a children’s hospital in San Francisco.
At the hospital her blood pressure dropped. She was dehydrated and hallucinating. Her kidneys began to fail, and she was put on dialysis and required several blood transfusions. I sat there with Matt for a month, not knowing if she would pull through.
This all happened because Rylee ate a spinach salad contaminated with E. coli O157:H7.
Rylee eventually recovered after spending over one month in the hospital and an additional two months at home – away from school, her friends and activities. As the result of a difficult intubation procedure, Rylee also lost her voice, a condition for which she underwent speech therapy. Unfortunately, the damage to Rylee’s kidneys can never be reversed. Though now in good health, many emotional scars remain, including a fear of eating raw vegetables and fruits.
I still find it difficult to process that it was contaminated spinach that caused Rylee’s illness, but the experience has made me active in the effort to improve the nation’s food safety system.
On Oct. 6 and 7, Rylee, Matt and I participated in Food Safety Action Day in Washington, DC, as part of the Make Our Food Safe (MakeOurFoodSafe.org) coalition, which includes a number of consumer and public health organizations. Through our connection with coalition member S.T.O.P – Safe Tables Our Priority (Safetables.org), an organization dedicated to preventing illness and death from foodborne pathogens, we were part of a team made up of victims of foodborne pathogens and their family members. Together, we visited Capitol Hill to make our voices and stories heard.
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (NV) and Rep. Dina Titus, who represents my home of Henderson, NV, are already supporters of stronger food safety laws. We thanked Rep. Titus for voting for the House food safety bill (HR 2749) that passed in July. Sen. Reid pledged his support of the companion food safety bill, S 510, and told Rylee he would do whatever he could to get the bill passed.
We met with staff members from the offices of Sen. Ensign (NV) and Sen. Daniel Inouye (HI), and Rylee was given the opportunity to tell them how she got sick and why she wanted the food safety laws changed. In each meeting we underscored that what happened to Rylee is not uncommon: every year millions of Americans are sickened by contaminated food and thousands of people die unnecessarily. To see Rylee’s short video on our trip to Capitol Hill, visit:www.youtube.com/safetables.
I am a busy mom just like a many other women in this country. I want to make sure my daughter grows up healthy and happy, and it is my job to make sure she eats nutritious food. I want to feel confident that when I go to the store, the food I am buying is safe and not a risk to my family. As consumers, we don’t have the power to check on these products and without a better system to protect us we are totally at the mercy of the next outbreak.
To take action, visit http://actionnetwork.org/campaign/Rylee and send your senator a letter telling them that you demand improvements to our food safety system. You owe it to your children, and yourself, to speak out.
Kathleen Chrismer
Henderson, NV
Rylee’s Mom
5 Comments
January 9, 2010 at 8:18 pm by John Brady ChrismerDear Kathleen,
When I saw your report and you, I thought, wow, Kathleen looks just like my daughters and nieces.
So sorry to learn of Rylee’s problems. I hope she recovers fully.
I assume your family is originally from the Gettsburg/Emmittsburg area as is mine.
Hope to hear back from you as my brother and cousins have all the Chrismer family history down pat.
Forgive me for assuming your family name is Chrismer, you certainly look like a Chrismer.
Brady Chrismer
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November 6, 2009 at 7:58 pm by Lisa Bentley TobiasWow. Thank you so much Kathleen for posting this.
One year ago our then 21 month old daughter went through a very similar nightmare because of e. coli 0157:H7 from contaminated beef from Whole Foods which she never consumed. Something she ate or touched got cross contaminated. She too had kidney failure, pancreas failure, multiple seizures including an hour and a half long seizure, was intubated and in the hospital for 42 days. When we brought her home she couldn’t talk, couldn’t sit, couldn’t walk, needed daily shots of insulin, and 13 other doses of medication daily.
I know the emotional scars you speak of. It has deeply effected everyone in our family and many friends. The nightmares, the ‘what does the future hold’ worries, the specialists, the fear of food, germs, etc….
Now a year later she’s still dealing with permanent kidney damage. We don’t know if she’ll need a transplant one day. Our lives will never be the same.
This sort of negligence is an intolerable crime.
THANK YOU for sharing your story and getting the word out there. People need to know the reality we victims deal with when exposed to tainted food.
I hope to one day join you, when my scars aren’t so raw, and be an activist myself.
You are truly inspiring.
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November 6, 2009 at 10:13 am by Debbie HornorThanks so much for moving ths issue forward. I, too, have joined this effort to Make Our Food Safe and am working to mobilize Moms to join me on November 12 at 10 AM at the Legislative Office Building lobby in Concord, NH to support S.510.
Sentator Gregg is a co-signer on the bill and we are urging he and Senator Shaheen to move this legislation forward this session.
Every day there are additional media stories that focus on the devastating impact of foodborne illness. Now is the time to make some significant progress and I hope that all Moms and families get involved to make a difference.
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November 3, 2009 at 7:08 pm by Donna RosenbaumAs executive director of an organization that supports thousands of foodborne illness victims, I was disappointed after reading Bob McCauley’s post. He should know that the Food Safety Enhancement Act of 2009 (H.R. 2749) does not include any fees whatsoever for farmers – large or small. The reality is that beyond the vast and unquestioned public health benefits of strengthening FDA’s food safety system, small farms and producers will benefit under proposed food safety legislation. The bill would streamline the patchwork set of regulations and standards farmers and producers must currently meet and institute a single, straightforward standard. More importantly, stronger testing and tracking mechanisms will improve the ability to identify where contaminated product is coming from, in the event of an outbreak. This would prevent the industry-wide avoidance of a type of food by consumers that hurts small farmers and producers the most. The E. coli O157:H7 spinach outbreak happened in 2006, yet even today spinach consumption has not bounced back to pre-outbreak levels. When it comes to comprehensive FDA food safety legislation, Congress and the American consumer cannot afford to wait! I believe Mr. McCauley might actually agree with me if he spent one day at the bedside of a child battling a deadly foodborne disease.
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November 2, 2009 at 10:54 pm by Bob McCauleyHR 2749 is an attempt to take control of our food supply, not keep us safe. The government wants more control of everything, including our banks, car companies, our health care and now our food supply. What are you thinking? $100,000 fines for individuals, warrantless searches of farms, $500/yr licenses for ANY food producer, including those who sell at farmer’s markets, the government telling farmers when and where and what to plant. HR2749 and the Senate companion bill is one of the most dangerous bills in history.
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