MOLLY'S STORY

During their vacation on the family cattle ranch near Klamath Falls in July 2007, 5-year old Molly and her sister, 8-year old Libby, spent two days playing in an irrigation canal, fishing for baby brown trout and just having fun. 

Four days later little Molly started having bloody diarrhea which prompted her parents, Tiffany and Loren Kerns, to rush her to Urgent Care in Eugene.  The doctor immediately suspect E.coli, and took the necessary samples to check.  The doctor also told the worried parents that usually E.coli just goes away and that, in fact, giving antibiotics could worsen the problem.  They were advised to give her plenty of fluids and, indeed, 3 days later she seemed fine.  But then the next day, Molly became extremely lethargic, and the following day developed bad abdominal pain.  They took her back to her pediatrician, who told them that although her E.coli tests had come back negative, she wanted to do more tests as she was now suspecting Hemolytic Uremic Syndrome (HUS).   Symptoms of HUS include the inability to urinate, and Molly hadn’t been able to do so for some time.

And this turned out to be the case.  As the usual treatment for HUS is kidney dialysis and the hospitals in the Eugene area are not equipped for pediatric dialysis, Molly had to be transported to Doernbecher Children’s Hospital in Portland.  Because of the seriousness of her condition, Doernbecher sent their special group, the Panda Team, to fetch her as she was too ill to be transported by her parents.  The Panda Team didn’t have an easy journey to Eugene, however, as it encountered traffic snarls all down I-5, but it finally arrived at 6pm.  Molly was admitted to Doernbecher’s ICU at 8:30 pm.  Doctors planned to start dialysis in the morning, but administered a transfusion of red blood cells at 2am.  This transfusion seemed to have a positive effect on her as she was able to urinate and so dialysis was postponed.  During the following day she continued to urinate, but was still feeling very sick.  On Sunday, she appeared to lose all her natural color and was extremely listless, so doctors gave her another unit of red blood cells.  As her parents say, it was like a miracle.  Within minutes of the transfusion, she was back to her normal color, sitting up in bed and coloring in her book.  From that moment on, Molly didn’t look back and was able to come home a few days later.  However, her pediatrician in Eugene is being extremely cautious and has Molly checked on an ongoing basis for any sign of problems.