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E.coli 0157
In this fast-paced, emotionally charged true-life medical drama which verges on science fiction, a mother fights to save her son from a deadly bacteria.
At camp, eleven-year-old Damian Heersink suddenly becomes ill. Within days, an infection ravages through his bloodstream and attaches his organs one by one. A confusion of diagnosis and treatment ensues. Damian is rushed into surgery seven times in the battle to save his life.
Meanwhile the killer microbe, which has attached Damian like the virus in Richard Preston's The Hot Zone , is the cause of epidemics elsewhere. Tough investigators and heroic doctors work around the clock trying to stop its advance.
E.coli 0157 is a powerful human drama about a mother waging a desperate fight for her child's life, grappling with ineffective government agencies and a greed-driven industry as a deadly bacteria threatens to strike anywhere, anytime.
At camp, eleven-year-old Damian Heersink suddenly becomes ill. Within days, an infection ravages through his bloodstream and attaches his organs one by one. A confusion of diagnosis and treatment ensues. Damian is rushed into surgery seven times in the battle to save his life.
Meanwhile the killer microbe, which has attached Damian like the virus in Richard Preston's The Hot Zone , is the cause of epidemics elsewhere. Tough investigators and heroic doctors work around the clock trying to stop its advance.
E.coli 0157 is a powerful human drama about a mother waging a desperate fight for her child's life, grappling with ineffective government agencies and a greed-driven industry as a deadly bacteria threatens to strike anywhere, anytime.
- GenresNonfiction
200 pages, Hardcover
First published July 15, 1996
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
February 7, 2020
A brilliant recount of true events written by the protagonists mother herself. It might just be my soft spot for non fiction, but it's written in a well paced, captivating way, including medical terms but not drowning the book in terms that your average everyday reader wouldn't understand. You just could make it up, everything that happened, I particularly like how the author has put the dates near each chapter so the readers have an idea how long the story spans.
The way Mary has written it, it really gets the reader to imagine the long restless nights and long saturated days of anticipation, fear and hope a parent with a critically ill child would feel. And it helps the readers to envision what poor Damion felt when he got sick. She also includes her husband and kids, and how they reacted. It's these little details that set the book apart from news stories and interviews/documentaries.
My only gripe (and this isn't the authors problem) is that this book isn't very accessible outside of the US. No bookshops or libraries had even heard of it so I had to order mine, even then it was like gold dust. It's a shame really as it's a very interesting read which might end up being forgotten about.
The way Mary has written it, it really gets the reader to imagine the long restless nights and long saturated days of anticipation, fear and hope a parent with a critically ill child would feel. And it helps the readers to envision what poor Damion felt when he got sick. She also includes her husband and kids, and how they reacted. It's these little details that set the book apart from news stories and interviews/documentaries.
My only gripe (and this isn't the authors problem) is that this book isn't very accessible outside of the US. No bookshops or libraries had even heard of it so I had to order mine, even then it was like gold dust. It's a shame really as it's a very interesting read which might end up being forgotten about.
February 1, 2017
Middle school and high school, biology.
Interesting book, mother details the treatment and recovery of her son after exposure to a particularly dangerous bacteria. Much is fairly personal, and there is maybe too much of a feel for the family life, which not all readers will identify with. But the medical details are interesting, and the reader certainly feels sympathy for the family and the young man.
Interesting book, mother details the treatment and recovery of her son after exposure to a particularly dangerous bacteria. Much is fairly personal, and there is maybe too much of a feel for the family life, which not all readers will identify with. But the medical details are interesting, and the reader certainly feels sympathy for the family and the young man.
March 27, 2022
*E. coli 0157* is a mother’s vivid account of Damion Heersink’s life and death battle with a deadly bacteria usually found in raw hamburger meat or stale mayonnaise. The author, Mary H., makes the ordeal compelling with medical detail and her rendering of the emotional agony experienced by parents at the edge of losing a child.
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“What was that?”
“That,” Marnix said in a very measured and distinctly angry pronunciation, “was a perforation. Our son has just blown a hole in his bowel.”
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“What was that?”
“That,” Marnix said in a very measured and distinctly angry pronunciation, “was a perforation. Our son has just blown a hole in his bowel.”
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews