E. coli victim's story told in local paper
The story of Ashley and Isabella Armstrong's E. coli illnesses was told in a Monticello, Indiana, Herald Journal article today. Reporter Doug Howard interviewed the girls' grandparents, Randy and Robin Armstrong, and told of their experience with watching Ashley suffer for months while battling for her life with hemolytic uremic syndrome and kidney failure. The story concluded with a few paragraphs on the Armstrongs' food safety advocacy efforts:
The Armstrongs said that one thing they would like to see come out of their ordeal and those of anyone affected by foodborne illness from contaminated food is more stringent government regulations on food safety.In response to the spate of recalls over the past year - from spinach to peanut butter to pet food - the House Committee on Energy and Commerce last month addressed food safety at its Oversight and Investigations subcommittee hearing entitled, "A Diminished Capacity: Can the FDA Assure the Safety and Security of the Nation's Food Supply?"
Ashley and her family - father Michael, mother Elizabeth, and older sister Isabella - were among representative from three families whose members suffered food poisoning after eating contaminated food and who sent representatives to testify in front of the committee, as did companies whose products were found to be responsible for large scale foodborne illness outbreaks.Ashley and her family are also are part of a documentary on food safety and foodborne illness, scheduled to air on the CNN network on May 19 and 20.
The Armstrong family also spoke with the New York Times for an upcoming article about food contamination this week.
