Parksville boy contracts rare form of E. Coli

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WATCH: A Parksville family is living a nightmare after their two-year-old son contracted a rare strain of E. coli that’s left him in BC Children’s Hospital for weeks.
The E. coli isn’t the variety that closes Island beaches each summer and produces light sickness. This one has devastated the tiny boy’s body.

Two-year-old Jaxon Brown is beginning a long road to recovery after being ravaged by a rare strain of E. coli.

“Jaxon has a long road ahead of him to recover from what’s happened,” said his mom Joleen.

“It’s been a really tough go.”

The E. coli strain has ravaged the little Parksville boy’s body. His symptoms were earlier diagnosed as likely heatstroke then a virus back on the Island, until his health worsened so severely he was flown to BC Children’s Hospital in Vancouver on July 24.

It’s there that tests revealed a powerful strain of E. coli and doctors have been urgently trying to gain control of it.

“A nightmare, a total nightmare,” said Jaxon’s grandfather Owen Secord.

“It’s dead serious because Jax could have very easily died if he hadn’t been flown over. One hour longer and he wouldn’t be with us today and that’s not us saying that. That’s the specialists telling us,” said Secord.

Doctors have told his family this is one of the most serious forms of Ecoli, not the kind commonly contracted on beaches in the summer.

“E. Coli with this toxin was also the cause of things like Walkerton,” said Central Vancouver Island Medical Health Officer Dr. Paul Hasselback.

“And we certainly have seen people who have died as a result of this particular type of strain.”

The source of the E. Coli still hasn’t been confirmed, but Jaxon’s family highly suspects it came from eating an apple that was laying in their backyard.

“Biting of an apple as far as we know that had been tampered with by deer and he picked up the [E] coli virus,” said Owen Secord.

To help Jaxon’s parents pay the bills while they are away from work, friends have set up a GoFundMe page that’s helping ease a lot of worry.

“Thank you isn’t enough,” said Secord. “Thank you isn’t enough. God bless all of you.”

 

Skye RyanSkye Ryan

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