A mother has warned other parents to be wary of the hygiene of shopping trolleys after her 10 month-old son contracted a salmonella infection and meningitis.
Gold Coast mum Vivienne Wardrop firmly believes that her baby boy, Logan, contracted the two potentially fatal illnesses from an infected trolley at Coles in Helensvale Westfield – and she has advised all parents to ensure they wipe down supermarket trolleys down before putting their little ones in the baby seat or bassinet.
Vivienne says that within 24 hours of going to the shops, Logan was suffering from severe diarrhoea, vomiting and a high temperature. At one point, the diarrhoea was so serious that he started passing blood.
“On Wednesday morning I got him out of bed and he had really bad diarrhoea. It had gone through his clothes and bedding,” she told Daily Mail Australia. “I gave him a bottle and he vomited it back up and this kept happening throughout the day.”
The doctor told her that Logan was suffering from a virus, but by the next day, Logan was so dehydrated that Vivienne took him to Gold Coast University Hospital. He was diagnosed with adenovirus, rotavirus, salmonella and meningitis and put into ICU. Logan’s heart rate was almost double the standard rate. Vivienne was worried that she was going to lose her son.
“I’ve never seen a child this sick, I have had five children. He lost 10 per cent of body weight in three days – 800 grams – and went to being bloated because the water wouldn’t go into the cells. It was terrifying.” she said.
“Even talking about it now makes me want to cry.”
She has posted a warning on social media to all mothers which she hopes is shared around.
Logan was in hospital for 10 days, and still has not recovered fully.
Coles has released a statement, telling Kidspot: “Coles cleans its trolleys on a regular basis, including sanitising its baby capsules.
“This is a highly unusual situation.
“As soon as the store was made aware, it proactively inspected the baby capsules and detected no signs of contamination.
“The store then undertook additional sanitisation of all its baby capsules to ensure the continued health and safety of our customers.”
