Mike Stobbe of AP Atlanta wrote a great story today about John and Loreen Meyer and John’s struggle with E. coli O104:H4 in the story “’30 days of hell’ for US victim of German E. coli” that hit the wire a few moments ago.

… Though it all happened less than two months ago, Meyer’s memory is fuzzy on what happened the next several weeks. He had intense stomach pain and his kidneys stopped working. Doctors put him on fluids to rehydrate him. They treated him with different antibiotics, and cleansed his blood using dialysis and other measures.

The infection affected his mind. He recalled staring at a clock in his hospital room and not being able to tell time. “I was thinking, ‘Why do they have this strange clock in here, and why is it set up differently?'”

Meyer said he grew paranoid, believing that his doctors had written him off for dead. Doctors had not given up on him, but were perplexed. A test for the most dangerous form of E. coli familiar to Americans came back negative. They sent specimens for additional analysis to lab with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention lab in Atlanta.

… Meyer feels lucky to have survived, crediting his doctors for saving his life and his good health and fitness before the illness for helping him get through it.

“Many unfortunate people didn’t survive,” he said. “It really is a frightening thing.”

Over 4,000 sickened, nearly 1,000 with Hemolytic Uremic Syndrome and over 50 deaths due to E. coli O104:H7.  FDA, FSIS, CDC, it can and will happen here if we do not prepare.