4 Year old Korean girl loses Kidney function after eating a McDonald's hamburger - 햄버거 먹고 신장장애 2급…맥도날드 “책임 없다”

Source KBS News

This story comes from KBS, one of the major news networks here in South Korea. Google's translation isn't perfect and screws up the translation of the title and the article. I had to speak to my wife to verify information, but my wife is the one who brought this article to my attention.

The girl’s mother had taken her daughter Si Eun to eat a McDonald’s hamburger near their residence back in September of 2016. The story just came out, so I’m not too sure as to why. Anyway, after lunch, they went to the playground to let her daughter play. 30 minutes later she goes to her mother complaining that her stomach hurts.

The next morning, Si Eun complained about how bad the pain was and so her mother took her straight to the hospital. The doctor prescribed some medicine, but she did not improve. A few days later, she returned back to the hospital on the 28th. The physician took an ultrasound and found that her intestinal tract was swollen.

Come to find out the child has HUS ( Hemolytic Uremic Syndrome), the result from undercooked meat. - Wikipedia entry:

"HUS occurs after 3–7% of all sporadic E. coli O157:H7 infections and up to approximately 20% or more of epidemic infections.Children and adolescents are commonly affected. Grossly, the kidneys may show patchy or diffuse renal cortical necrosis. Histologically, the glomeruli show thickened and sometimes split capillary walls due largely to endothelial swelling. Large deposits of fibrin-related materials in the capillary lumens, subendothelially, and in the mesangium are also found along with mesangiolysis. Interlobular and afferent arterioles show fibrinoid necrosis and intimal hyperplasia and are often occluded by thrombi."

"STEC-HUS most often affects infants and young children, but also occurs in adults. The most common form of transmission is ingestion of undercooked meat, unpasteurized fruits and juices, contaminated produce, contact with unchlorinated water, and person-to-person transmission in daycare or long-term care facilities."

Unlike typical HUS, aHUS does not follow STEC infection and is thought to result from one or several genetic mutations that cause chronic, uncontrolled, and excessive activation of complement. This leads to platelet activation, endothelial cell damage, and white blood cell activation, leading to systemic TMA, which manifests as decreased platelet count, hemolysis, damage to multiple organs, and ultimately, death. Early signs of systemic complement-mediated TMA include thrombocytopenia (platelet count below 150,000 or a decrease from baseline of at least 25%) and evidence of microangiopathic hemolysis, which is characterized by elevated LDH levels, decreased haptoglobin, decreased hemoglobin, and/or the presence of schistocytes."*

The girl ended up in the hospital for 2 months. Her kidneys showed a 90% loss of functionality. The cost of her treatment came out to 30 million won within those two months, which comes out to over $26,000 USD. Si Eun has now has to spend the rest of her life on dialysis.

McDonald's refuses to accept the insurance claims, stating that they checked all of their meat and found no abnormalities.

A very sad story. My prayers to Si Eun and her family.

Source:
http://m.news.naver.com/read.nhn?mode=LSD&sid1=001&oid=056&aid=0010470506

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hemolytic-uremic_syndrome