Here’s a horrid and shocking story of a dance instructor’s bout with E. coli after eating a burger her mother made for her in Minnesota. New York Times goes pretty in-depth with this story and digs up a lot of dirt at the Cargill plant in Bulter, WI.

Here’s an excerpt:

Stephanie Smith, a children’s dance instructor, thought she had a stomach virus. The aches and cramping were tolerable that first day, and she finished her classes.

Then her diarrhea turned bloody. Her kidneys shut down. Seizures knocked her unconscious. The convulsions grew so relentless that doctors had to put her in a coma for nine weeks. When she emerged, she could no longer walk. The affliction had ravaged her nervous system and left her paralyzed.

Ms. Smith, 22, was found to have a severe form of food-borne illness caused by E. coli, which Minnesota officials traced to the hamburger that her mother had grilled for their Sunday dinner in early fall 2007.

Watch the video: http://video.nytimes.com/video/2009/10/03/health/1247464978948/tainted-meat.html

Read the article: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/04/health/04meat.html?pagewanted=1&_r=3&hp