A severe bacterial E. coli infection that killed a 4-year-old Minnesota girl four years ago has now played a role in her mother's death.
Karen Odens, 39, died July 14 from prolonged complications of the E. coli infection she contracted while caring for her daughter, Sophia, her father said.
At a funeral in Detroit Lakes Saturday, relatives and friends will mourn and remember a woman who had been inseparable from her daughter _ fishing off the dock at their home, playing My Little Pony, and dressing up together for Halloween. Odens struggled with post-traumatic stress after her daughter died, and also was hospitalized 30 times with complications from her own infection, which were worsened by her small stature, said her father, Ed Welke.
"The last four years have been really pretty rough, and the strange thing is, we never could figure out what Sophia ate" that caused the initial infection of the E. coli O157 strain, Welke said.
Welke said his family hopes that others will learn from his wife's and daughter's deaths by washing their produce, fully cooking meat, and taking any other precautions to prevent foodborne infections.
E. coli outbreaks occur every year in Minnesota, mostly through eating contaminated food. Nine outbreaks confirmed in the state in 2015 were traced back to restaurants, a day care center and a county fair, according to the Minnesota Department of Health.
This year, 12 E. coli infections and two deaths in Minnesota have been traced back to a national outbreak of contaminated romaine lettuce grown in the southwestern United States. Most cases produce severe stomach cramps and diarrhea. Less than one in 10 results in hemolytic uremic syndrome, which can lead to life-threatening kidney problems.
Person-to-person transmission is a risk for spreading E. coli, especially in child care facilities and situations in which caregivers or others come in contact with the fecal matter of people who are infected, said Carlota Medus, an epidemiologist supervisor in the health department's foodborne diseases unit. This year, the state has ordered more than a dozen children to stay out of child-care facilities until their risks of spreading E. coli have passed.
"When the public thinks about E. coli, they often think about ground beef," she said. "But (person-to-person transmission) absolutely is a risk. Stool to hand to mouth or stool to surface to hand to mouth _ any variation on that theme."
Underlying health conditions do increase the risks of complications or deaths from E. coli infections, Medus said.
Odens earned a doctorate in pharmacy from North Dakota State University and worked for a decade at Pelican Drug in Pelican Rapids, Minn., where she became a trusted resource for the community's growing Somali immigrant population.
"I want people to remember how caring she was," her father said. "Men and women would come in and ask for Karen."
Complications from her illness forced her to give up her job. She suffered swings of dangerously high blood pressure, following by equally hazardous low levels that would disrupt her kidneys. Eventually, kidney failure caused her to need dialysis.
