Her mute state, punctuated only by groans, is the latest downturn in the swift collapse of her health that began in May when she curled up on her living room couch and nonchalantly ate several spoonfuls of the Nestlé cookie dough her family had been consuming for years. Federal health officials believe she is among 80 people in 31 states sickened by cookie dough contaminated with a deadly bacteria, E. coli O157:H7.
The impact of the infection has been especially severe for Rivera and nine other victims who developed a life-threatening complication known as hemolytic uremic syndrome. One, a 4-year-old girl from South Carolina, had a stroke and is partially paralyzed.
The E. coli victims are among millions -- one in four Americans -- sickened by food-borne illnesses each year. As waves of recalls have caused the public to lose confidence in the safety of food, lawmakers are scrambling to respond. In July, the House approved legislation that would give the Food and Drug Administration broad new powers and place new responsibilities on food producers. The bill would speed up the ability of health officials to track down the source of an outbreak and give the government the power to mandate a recall, rather than rely on food producers to voluntarily pull tainted products from the shelves.
The Senate is expected to take up its version in the fall, and the issue has become a high priority for the White House.
It is impossible to say whether new laws and tougher enforcement would have prevented the contamination of the Nestlé cookie dough, which the company voluntarily pulled from stores hours after the government linked it to the outbreak.
Last week, chilled packages of the chocolate-chip cookie dough returned to supermarkets after a two-month absence as company executives tried in vain to find the cause of the contamination. They scrubbed their production plant, bought new ingredients and started making dough again.
