Girl contracts E.coli after petting zoo visit
PUBLIC Health England has launched an investigation after a four-year-old girl contracted E.coli following a trip to a petting zoo.
Isla Grainger spent 17 days in hospital after the potentially fatal infection caused her kidneys to fail and had to be put into an induced coma.
Isla, who contracted the infection after a trip to the zoo last month, is now recovering at home.
Her devastated mother Lauren Aspery, 21, feared she would lose her daughter as her condition quickly worsened.
Isla had emergency surgery to insert a catheter and to start urgent dialysis after doctors discovered the schoolgirl’s sickness bug was in fact E.coli.
The family, which includes Ms Asprey’s partner Lewis Keith, spent a weekend visiting Tapnell Farm, in Yarmouth on the Isle of Wight, arcades and a beach in Sandown before Isla began to have diarrhoea and sickness. E.coli is a bacteria found in the gut and faeces of animals.
The infection can be caught by eating contaminated food, touching infected animals and contact with people who have the illness.
Public Health England said its investigation into the source of the infection was continuing.
A spokesman for Tapnell Farm said: “We are very sorry to hear that the little girl has contracted E.coli and wish her a speedy recovery.” He quoted the press release from Public Health England, that “the investigation into the source of the infection is ongoing with no evidence to link the infection to a source on the Isle of Wight at the current time”.