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Meet 2009’s Mom on a Mission Finalist, Barbara Kowalcyk!
Healthy Child
Sunday, January 17, 2010
Last year, Healthy Child received 128 submissions from across the country in response to our 2009 Mom on a Mission search. We received many compelling stories about dynamic women working to make their communities healthier and safer for their children. One that really stood out was sent to us by Wendy Cohen, one of the brains behind TakePart.com, introducing us to Barbara Kowalcyk. Though the 2009 winner was Shelby Rodriguez, Barbara was one of the finalists and a strong contender. Take a look at Wendy's letter to us:
"We all eat three times a day but how often during these meals do we think about the possible dangers of the food we’re eating? How can a salad or sandwich make us sick or even kill us? Barbara Kowalcyk is a remarkable mom who has turned a tragic circumstance into a mission to protect all of us from the dangers of food contamination. She has recently become a nationally recognized face because of her presence in the film Food, Inc. For all of those who know her – both personally and from the big screen- one cannot help but be inspired by her.
Barbara is the mother of 4 children. In the summer of 2001 her family took a vacation from New Jersey to Maine visiting friends and relatives in Plymouth Rock, Acadia National Park, the Baseball Hall of Fame and Niagra Falls.
On August 1st, two weeks after the family vacation, their 2-year-old son Kevin became sick and Barbara took him to the emergency room for bloody diarrhea. They were sent home that evening but by the next morning, Kevin was much sicker and was hospitalized for dehydration and bloody stools.
Later that afternoon, he was diagnosed with E.coli O157:H7, which he contracted from a hamburger he ate during their vacation. On August 3rd, Kevin’s kidneys started failing and he was transferred to the Pediatric ICU at the University of Wisconsin’s Children’s Hospital. For the next 8 days, Barbara and her family watched Kevin slowly slip away.
Barbara was by her son’s side the entire time and at 8:20 pm on August 11th, after being resuscitated twice - as doctors were attempting to put him on a heart-lung machine –Kevin passed away.
Since E. coli O157:H7 is a reportable infectious disease, the public health department was notified as soon as Kevin was diagnosed. The local health department told the family that Kevin’s case was an isolated incident. Further, the health department said there was a 95% chance that they wouldn’t find the source of Kevin’s illness.
After working with a lawyer who specializes in foodborne illnesses, Barbara discovered that the strand of Kevin’s E. coli matched that of a meat recall in August 2001. The recalled meat had been produced by a subsidiary of one of America’s largest agribusinesses. In July 2000 – one year before Kevin’s illness – that same company failed USDA’s Salmonella test for the second time. And again on August 2 2001, E. coli O157:H7 was found in their plant. Finally, on August 27, 2001 – after 25 days of USDA-industry negotiations – the plant recalled 530,000 pounds of ground beef. But unfortunately, it was too late for Kevin.
In 2004, Barbara and her family filed a lawsuit so that they could subpoena the producer and retailer’s records to find out exactly what happened that lead to Kevin’s death. Unfortunately, Barbara’s family was never able to prove conclusively that the recalled meat was what caused Kevin’s illness so they dropped the lawsuit.
In Barbara’s words “accountability fosters responsibility” but in the end, no one was held accountable.
Unfortunately Kevin’s death was not an isolated incident. According to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention 76 million Americans are sickened, 325,000 are hospitalized and 5,000 die each year from foodborne illnesses. The tragedy of her son compelled Barbara to work as a tireless food safety advocate lobbying in Congress regularly to pass much stronger food safety regulation. In 2006, Barbara and her mom Patricia Buck founded the Center For Foodborne Illness Research and Prevention (CFI). Their organization is dedicated to preventing foodborne illness by raising awareness, educating and advocating for sustainable, science-based food protections.
Barbara Kowalcyk is a regular mom and a leader fighting on behalf of everyone to ensure we are guaranteed access to a safe food system. She has turned her tragedy into a campaign for us all."
Want to know how to nominate that special mom, or yourself for 2010?
Posted by Rhonda Rambeaut on 02/04/2010 at 02:17 PM
Twenty years ago I heard the words EColi 0157 for the first time. It was my first assignment as a Public Health Nurse. The children affected were attending a child care center in my home town. They had eaten hamburgers for lunch, the beef was ground at one of our local markets. None of the children died but 2 had lasting effects from the disease. That assignment became mine for many months until everyone tested negative. I even did my Public Health Project on EColi 0157 and I still have that paper today (somewhere?). The sad part about this, after 20 years, is that most people know very little about the effects of this bacteria and definitely not the number of people who die from it. Some have no idea what EColi is. I have been fortunate enough to have a position where I can educate large groups of people on health and safety, including food borne illnesses. I definitely plan to share a lot of your information and most likely will develop a new training with the focus being Food Borne Illnesses. Thanks for the sacrifices and effort you have given to help make this world a safer place for our children and adults too. Rhonda
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Posted by Ginger Gibbons on 05/23/2010 at 09:09 PM
I first heard about this on a local PBS here in Oklahoma on the film ‘Food, Inc.’ It only strengthened by beliefs about our governments food system. We struggle to maintain our own food sources by buying ‘fresh’ and ‘local’ and growing our own. We have just begun to raise our own meat source.
After making my sister aware of Barbara and Kevin, she is doing her ‘Ethics Thesis’ on them and Barbara’s plight. Her teachers are all over the state and so are her classmates, as she studies online. The word of truth travels fast by mouth and internet.
Good Luck Barbara,
We are praying for you…