E. coli link uncertain in boy’s death

CHUBBUCK, Idaho – The father of a 2-year-old boy said tests have not been conclusive on whether his son’s death could be attributed to a national outbreak of E. coli in spinach that began this month.

“The fact is, they may never be able to link it,” Jeff Allgood told the Idaho State Journal.

Kyle Allgood, who would have turned 3 in December, died Wednesday at Primary Children’s Hospital in Salt Lake City. His funeral is scheduled for today.

Many of the 175 people sickened in the nation’s E. coli outbreak reported eating spinach supplied by Natural Selections Foods, a California grower. So far, 93 people have been hospitalized, including a Wisconsin woman who died.

Two other deaths have been reported in suspected cases – Allgood’s and that of an elderly woman in Maryland. Both are still being investigated.

Allgood had consumed a smoothie that contained spinach shortly before becoming ill. Robyn Allgood said she made the smoothies for Kyle and her 5-year-old daughter, Maryn. Maryn didn’t finish her smoothie.

Robyn Allgood said she didn’t pay much attention to reports about the E. coli outbreak before Kyle became ill.

“You just never think that something like this could happen to our family,” she said. “I think it was just Kyle’s time to go.”

E. coli lives in the intestines of cattle and other animals and typically is linked to contamination by fecal material. It causes an estimated 73,000 cases of infection, including 61 deaths, each year in the United States, according to the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Sources of the bacterium include uncooked produce, raw milk, unpasteurized juice, contaminated water and meat, especially undercooked or raw hamburger, the agency says on its Web site.

Jeff Allgood said his son died of a form of kidney failure called hemolytic-uremic syndrome, which could indicate E. coli.