Calgary E. coli daycare outbreak cases reach 164; exact source still unclear

The number of E. coli cases from the outbreak at 11 daycares reached 164, and a Calgary mother is voicing her concerns with this strain.

Twenty-seven people are in hospital, and Alberta Health Services is now testing samples from a central kitchen used by multiple daycares. However, an exact source of the outbreak hasn’t been identified.

Additionally, 19 people have come down with hemolytic uremic syndrome (HUS), a rare disease that affects the kidneys and blood clotting function.

The E. coli is not a typical strain that causes two or three days of watery diarrhea, vomiting or abdominal cramps. It’s a type of E. coli 0157, which secretes a toxin that can lead to organ damage.

Roughly 20 per cent of children develop HUS.

Calgary mother Sarah Mcdonald’s four-year-old son spent three days in hospital. She feels lucky he appears to be past the worst of it and is now back home, but she says it was a horrific ordeal and worries about children with the bacterial illness.

“He was on the toilet struggling, and I was trying to put a heat pack on his little guts to try and help. It wasn’t helping. And he just looked up at me with such a sad face and said, ‘Mommy, why can’t you help me?’ And I just totally broke down. So helpless,” she told CityNews.

“It’s maybe five in the morning, and you’re on the bathroom floor just praying because I was just out of out of ideas. I felt like, as a parent, I was just totally losing control of the situation, and there was nothing I could do to help him.”

WATCH: Some Calgary daycare E. coli patients on dialysis

Mcdonald says her son recovered Saturday and developed mild HUS and a mild kidney injury.

“We came close, but we didn’t actually need to start interventions for HUS. His body, as far as we know, has started … to go back in the other direction. So we’re really, really grateful for that,” she said.

The NDP critic for childcare and children and family services, Diana Batten, is accusing the province of not providing additional resources for the 11 affected daycares and not offering reassurances to impacted families.

“We also need the investigation to provide recommendations to prevent such a devastating outbreak in the future and a commitment from the government that they will follow through on this,” Batten’s statement reads.

“The health and well-being of Albertans, and especially children, must be a priority for the government at all times.”

The Calgary daycares linked to the outbreak could reopen early next week, and at the same time, a potential class-action lawsuit is being considered by some parents whose children were infected.

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• Concerns mount after E. coli outbreak at Calgary daycares

Regarding the response by the government, Mcdonald says officials are being careful with what they say, and “not all of it is feeling really genuine at this point.”

“It really feels like a mixed bag over here. I know that the teachers that cared for [him] at the daycare love him and are genuinely worried for him. It’s difficult because I think so many other organizations … have more than one agenda. It feels like there’s going to be …  liability here. And people are just being careful with what they say,” she explained.

But the long-term impacts are the real concerns for her, including the impact the bacterial infection has had on his mental well-being.

“He’s been traumatized. He is a fully potty-trained little boy, and we had to go back to using diapers because this was such an intense diarrhea, and he is disturbed about it,” Mcdonald explained.

“He has had to undergo medical procedures and needles and … holding them down while they’re screaming ‘I want to go home.’ They want to go home, and there’s just a lot of trauma here that we need to help him process.”

Alberta’s premier, Danielle Smith, posted on X, sending her “thoughts and prayers” to the children who’ve contracted E. coli.

I’m sending my thoughts and prayers to all the children who’ve contracted E. coli in the recent outbreak. My heart also goes out to the families of these little ones. Thank you to all the frontline workers who’ve been working tirelessly to treat and care for these children.…

— Danielle Smith (@ABDanielleSmith) September 10, 2023

“My heart also goes out to the families of these little ones. Thank you to all the frontline workers who’ve been working tirelessly to treat and care for these children,” her post reads.

She says the Minister of Health, Adrianna LaGrange and the Minister of Children and Family Services, Searle Turton, have been asked to do a “full assessment” of the outbreak to “ensure steps are taken to prevent this from happening in the future.”

Smith’s post comes as Alberta’s chief medical officer of health Mark Joffe and LaGrange has yet to address the outbreak publically.

-With files from The Canadian Press