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in the spring of
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1991 a group of Boy Scouts spent the
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weekend in the woods hoping to earn
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merit badges for survival in the
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wilderness but just 10 days later one of
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the scouts Damien heyn was fighting for
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his own Survival as he lay near death in
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a
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hospital doctors wanted to find the
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cause
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and they also needed to find a cure
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[Music]
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[Music]
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the hear SN family have a quiet active
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life in the small town of Dothan Alabama
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Marx heyn is a busy eye surgeon and he
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met his wife Mary while he was in
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medical school the heyn family soon grew
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to include four children three boys
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Damian Sebastian Bane and a daughter
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named Mila all intelligent active and
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healthy about a week after Damen heyn
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returned from The Voice Scout trip his
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mother prepared to take Damian and his
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brother to Florida Daman was headed to
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space camp and Sebastian was going to
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tennis camp Sebastian and his mother
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packed the van because Damian wasn't
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feeling well he had a slight fever and
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some
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diarrhea his parents thought it might
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have been the pizza Damen ate at a
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friend's house or perhap perhaps it was
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just a virus going through Damian's
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school and like you respond to all of
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those kinds of bugs and little illnesses
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as a as a parent you think okay I'm
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going to fix it Mary packed
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anti-diarrheal medicine and some drinks
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to replenish the fluids and they headed
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to Florida intending to drive straight
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through the night Damian's symptoms
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didn't respond to the medicine and they
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were forced to make frequent stops on
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the trip if became apparent that he was
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dealing with something more complicated
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than a flu Mary decided it was best to
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stop for the night and let Damian rest
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then we went through a night where he
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just lived in the bathroom back and
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forth uh the hotel room uh all night
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using the bathroom and the next morning
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I woke up thinking okay it was one of
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those weird things we're okay let's go
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on our way get to space camp get to
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tennis camp the next day day Daman was
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no better in fact as his mother drove
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towards Tampa she noticed that Damian
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was getting worse she was really getting
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pretty worried that Daman was uh really
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pretty sick that he had uh pretty
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frankly lot of diarrhea and there was
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some blood in
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it they drove to a local hospital where
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x-ray showed his intestines were swollen
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the news was not good additional test
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showed that there were deadly toxins
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collecting in Damian's blood evidence
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that his kidneys were shutting down it
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needs to be very carefully watched
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because it could be the start of
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something disastrous doctors didn't know
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what was causing Damian's Illness but if
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the problem wasn't identified quickly
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Damian would
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die as daman's condition worsened he was
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quickly transferred to a Pediatric
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Intensive Care Unit at another hospital
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when the diarrhea turned to hemorrhaging
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it was like literally all hell was
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breaking loose now it just poured out of
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and it wasn't so much diarrhea as it was
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just Hemorrhage
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just pan after pan of clotted uh blood
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pouring out of them Damian's red blood
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cells were being destroyed and his
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kidneys were shutting down tests showed
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that he was was suffering from a rare
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life-threatening condition called
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hemolytic ureic syndrome or
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hus although his father was a doctor it
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was a disease he had never heard of I
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didn't know what this disease was so I
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fortunately had some books with me Etc
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and I looked it up and I really realized
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that this was a uh this is a bad disease
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Terry shoes was the first nurse who
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cared for Damian we all knew in our
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hearts what might happen and when we
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were sure it was hemolytic heric
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syndrome that's when the fear set in and
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we knew we had to become very aggressive
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H is caused by a lethal bacteria one
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which creates a toxin a chemical poison
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that attacks the blood vessels and the
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blood it triggers a deadly Cascade of
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Events first red blood cells are
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shredded the blood loses its clotting
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ability but at the same time the broken
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cells Clump together creating a
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life-threatening dam in the bloodstream
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and when the clump reach vital organs it
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deprives them of blood and oxygen
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Damian's parents read all they could
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about this mysterious blood disease
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desperate to find out what caused it
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Mary poured over the medical literature
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she learned that hus is usually linked
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to contaminated food but no one else in
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the family had gotten sick could it be
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the pizza Daman had at a friend's house
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what about the Boy Scout trip was the
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bacteria in the water or was it
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something in the food I needed to get on
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the phone call home nobody in our town
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was aware of what kind of trouble Damian
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was in at that point call the
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scoutm and and ask him was anybody else
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sick because that became my concern is
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that there were other kids who may have
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been poisoned Mary was surprised and
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confused by the
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answer none of the other boy scouts were
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sick how on Earth can this child fall
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into this deep whole with no explanation
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the source of Damian's illness remained
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a mystery but its severity was becoming
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all too clear Dr Daniel Placencia led a
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team of doctors who would try to keep
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Damian alive it was affecting different
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organs and that process kind of put him
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in the severe category onto the stomach
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doctors told Mary about hus and its
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unpredictability that it launches random
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attacks on the body's critical organs
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creating deadly complications without
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warning and there was little doctors
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could do to stop it and you realize he
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could die it's an impossible thought for
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someone like me for most parents and at
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that point uh the doctors told me that
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there was really nothing that you could
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do that we just had to watch cross our
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fingers wait and hope that this Beast
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didn't take a lethal hit on on one of
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Damian's major organ systems Damian's
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condition worsened by the minute blood
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test showed that his system was
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overflowing with toxins Damian needed
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dialysis to cleanse his blood just to
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stay alive then in the middle of the
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night I got a phone call from Mary
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saying that uh it's really to a point
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where you need to come dialysis kept
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Daman alive but the disease was raging
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like a fire through his body as a doctor
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Marx understood the test results and he
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knew his son was dying he was in a very
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bad downward
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spiral every turn seemed to be on the
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downside I was really seeing the actual
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disease take its ravaging effects on him
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right before our eyes and X-rays showed
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that fluid was collecting around daman's
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heart more than a liter of fluid was
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siphoned away allowing his heart to beat
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more freely but a few hours later his
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parents were in his room when tragedy
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struck help us we need help without
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warning Damian's blood pressure went
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into a free fall the hear sinks were
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watching their son die before their very
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eyes Damen started to shake and convulse
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and turn blue and he was dying and it is
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so
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terrifying that you you just are reduced
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to begging God to let your child live
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for one more minute there was a frantic
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effort to restore daman's blood pressure
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before it damaged his heart or brain we
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gave him extra fluid intravenously we
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must have given him half a liter to a
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liter of fluid to restore his fluid
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volume gradually his blood pressure
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increased and Damian survived a brush
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with death but the disease had only
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begun to reveal its power the hear sinks
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agonized what caused this terrible
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tragedy to happen to their son and why
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wasn't there a
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[Music]
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treatment while Damian lay near death in
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a Pediatric Intensive Care Unit his
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father desperately searched for answers
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he called an old friend from medical
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school who specializes in blood
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disorders John uh heyn here from medical
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school they hadn't spoken in nearly 10
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years but Marx was desperate so my in
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personal feeling was that the doctors
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here are very good but they don't see
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this very often Marx began to describ
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the symptoms to his friend but before he
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could finish Dr Kelton knew the
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diagnosis I knew what he had in two
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sentences on a telephone John Kelton had
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spent his entire career studying rare
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blood diseases many doctors had never
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seen and he knew from his experience
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that the worst wasn't over in subsequent
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telephone calls it became apparent to me
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and of considerable concern to me that
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Damian was moving from this localized
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illness called hemolytic ureic syndrome
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into the far more severe illness called
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thrombotic thrombocytopenic perpus Dr k
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knew something the local doctors did not
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there was only one thing that would keep
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Damian alive a risky unproven treatment
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many doctors believed was too
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experimental it was called a plasma
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exchange what it is doing is washing out
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toxic substances from the bloodstream
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the massive transfusions would mean
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additional risks a possible HIV or
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hepatitis infection but Dr Kelton knew
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that the greater risk was not doing
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anything I emphasized that when I've
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known of similar patients who did not
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receive
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treatment they invariably
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worsened and the outcome was death once
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the daily plasma exchanges started
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Damian's condition began to improve and
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I could see that in my judgment toxins
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and poisons and really awful things were
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being suctioned out of his body
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meanwhile Mary hn continued to educate
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herself on hemolytic ureic syndrome and
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the bacteria that caused it 96 to 98% of
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the cases of hus are caused by this new
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lethal microbe exploding in our food
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supply this is the bacteria it's called
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eoli
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0157 watch and you can see how one
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bacteria can multiply and become a
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deadly threat epidemiologists can trace
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it back only as far as the early
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1970s but it's already the leading cause
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of kidney failure in American children
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it kills 500 people in the United States
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each year most of them children somehow
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the eoli bacteria entered Damian's
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system and triggered the horrible blood
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disorder Damian probably ingested the
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deadly bacteria about a week to 10 days
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earlier a single bacterium could have
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ignited the chain of events wildly
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multiplying in the warm moist recesses
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of Damian's
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intestines but where did it come from
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contaminated water meat unpasturized
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juice and if it happened while he was on
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the Scout camping trip why weren't any
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of the other Scouts infected before
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doctors knew if the plasma therapy would
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work the disease struck again
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an echocardiogram revealed that Damian's
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heart was still under attack they have
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to go in and pull off this fluid which
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is accumulating around his heart in in
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essence drowning him now drastic
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measures would be needed to keep Damian
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alive he needed more heart surgery if
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something isn't done then the heart will
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eventually stop was the plasma exchange
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started too late to Halt the damage to
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his internal organs his doctors and
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nurses weren't sure it was really hard
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it was because you just can't let kids
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die without a fight Damian did fight and
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he survived the heart surgery soon Daman
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started to show some improvement the
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plasma exchanges continued Damian could
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breathe on his own but the disease Was
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preparing another deadly assault on his
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weakened body it started innocently
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enough he was so thirsty he was just
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really dying to get some fluids in and
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we started with a little bit of fluid
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and then Mama went to get him some ice
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drink that she' promised him when Damen
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took a few sips disaster
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[Music]
00:14:44
struck an excruciating abdominal pain
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overwhelmed
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him and Marx was certain at that moment
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that we had
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another catastrophe x-rays confirmed
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mx's worst fears the disease had blown a
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hole in Damian's intestines poisonous
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bacteria were now being released into
00:15:07
his body and Damian would need emergency
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surgery is the first time I think I
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really accepted that Damian could and
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would die and you know I had to get
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ready now for him to die that this is
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going to be the end the anesthesia the
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surgery the bacteria pouring from his
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intestines any one of these were enough
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to kill Damian he had uh very little to
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fight with you refuse to lose your hope
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though but you get this Grim feeling
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inside like you just don't know if you
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can do any more for them Damian's
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parents and his doctors didn't know if
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he could survive another
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battle how did did the deadly eoli
00:16:00
bacteria enter Damian Hearn was it from
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the water at Boy Scout camp or was the
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bacteria in the food and if it was
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something he ate at Boy Scout camp why
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weren't any of the other boys sick told
00:16:15
surprisingly the answer came from Daman
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himself it came to him in a dream as he
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lay in the
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[Music]
00:16:24
hospital it happened at Scout camp it
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was my job to make hamburger patties and
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we cooked them on a grill over the
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campfire we stacked them up on a tray
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and I went up to the table to get one I
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was really hungry and I saw a small
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piece of meat on the plate it was just a
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tiny piece which looked like it fell off
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one of the burgers I was so hungry that
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I grabbed the piece and ate it I knew
00:16:50
there was a problem it was cold it
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looked like it was CED but it was almost
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raw all my friends were around I didn't
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want just spit it out in front of him so
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I just swallowed it when Damen woke up
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after his dream he told his father what
00:17:07
happened but he independently came to
00:17:10
the realization and reported it almost
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as a confessional to his dad that I know
00:17:15
it made me sick Dad it was when I
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swallowed that I knew that was wrong
00:17:20
something was wrong about that that's
00:17:21
what made me sick thoroughly cooking
00:17:24
hamburger usually kills the eoli
00:17:26
bacteria but since Damian ate a piece of
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rare meat the ecoli bacteria were
00:17:32
multiplying inside his system within
00:17:35
minutes of ingestion by the time Damien
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left for Space Camp a week later the
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ecoli bacteria had begun to produce
00:17:43
toxins which attacked his vital organs
00:17:46
ironically the medicine Daman took to
00:17:49
relieve his diarrhea during the trip
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probably made his condition worse
00:17:53
because it hindered his body's attempt
00:17:56
to flush the bacteria from his system
00:17:59
fortunately for Daman the experimental
00:18:02
plasma exchange worked it saved his life
00:18:05
by removing the deadly toxins from his
00:18:08
bloodstream after 5 weeks in intensive
00:18:12
care seven operations and many agonizing
00:18:16
brushes with death Damian survived his
00:18:20
war against the deadly eoli bacteria at
00:18:23
the same camping trip that Damian was on
00:18:27
other children ate the same food it only
00:18:31
happened to him why did it happen to him
00:18:34
well the answer on a trivial level is is
00:18:36
that it was fate but obviously there is
00:18:39
something in certain individuals that
00:18:42
put them at risk of having this reaction
00:18:45
it's pretty scary just whenever I get a
00:18:47
chance to think about it and think about
00:18:49
everything that happened to me I see I'm
00:18:51
pretty lucky to be alive right now but
00:18:53
others haven't been as fortunate in
00:18:56
1993 an outbreak of Eola at several Jack
00:18:59
in the Box restaurants killed three
00:19:04
[Music]
00:19:06
people and it left this victim
00:19:09
10-year-old Brienne ker with permanent
00:19:12
brain
00:19:15
damage and in the summer of
00:19:18
1996 more than 9,000 Japanese school
00:19:21
children were infected with the eoli
00:19:24
bacteria 11 died eoli bacteria usually
00:19:28
come from the intestines of cattle cow
00:19:31
manure with ecoli can get washed into
00:19:34
streams and cause contamination and when
00:19:38
manure is used for fertilizer it can
00:19:41
contaminate apples which fall to the
00:19:43
ground if those same apples are made
00:19:46
into cider and it's not pasteurized The
00:19:50
Cider can also be contaminated but the
00:19:52
most common method of ecoli infection is
00:19:55
through contaminated ground beef when it
00:19:58
isn't properly cooked one study found
00:20:02
that 3 and 1/2% of the ground beef sold
00:20:05
in supermarkets was infected with the
00:20:07
deadly eoli
00:20:10
0157 and there's also the problem of
00:20:13
cross contamination liquids from tainted
00:20:16
ground beef can contaminate other Foods
00:20:18
in a refrigerator or on countertops this
00:20:21
was a disease that was unheard of or
00:20:23
very very rare even 105 years ago and
00:20:27
it's now in just a DEC
00:20:29
become the leading cause of kidney
00:20:31
failure in United States children it's
00:20:33
one of the leading causes of pediatric
00:20:35
death in certain countries like
00:20:37
Argentina Daman heyn's brush with eoli
00:20:41
has not only changed his life but also
00:20:45
his families his mother has written a
00:20:48
book about daman's story and founded an
00:20:50
international organization dedicated to
00:20:53
eliminating eoli from our food supply
00:20:57
Damian is one of the the lucky ones
00:21:00
today he's a healthy
00:21:02
16-year-old he plays on the high school
00:21:04
basketball team watches his brother's
00:21:07
play on the school football team and is
00:21:09
starting to look at colleges whenever I
00:21:12
think about everything that happened to
00:21:13
me and everything that could have gone
00:21:15
wrong but didn't you know I'm very
00:21:17
fortunate he has lost 25% of his lung
00:21:21
capacity and will always be at risk of
00:21:24
future kidney problems but his story has
00:21:27
continued to to help others Damen is our
00:21:31
Masterpiece he is probably one of our
00:21:34
best accomplishments and and successes
00:21:38
because he had so many critical problems
00:21:41
and he came out so well I believe that a
00:21:43
lot of the things that I have in my life
00:21:45
are because of things other people have
00:21:47
done for me and our family and and
00:21:50
certainly myself I we have an obligation
00:21:53
to try to make things better for others
00:21:55
because what we have is uh we have life
00:21:58
we have our son and we have a uh a
00:22:00
wonderful family and we need to be able
00:22:02
to give back and that's what we're
00:22:03
trying to do just want to say hi to
00:22:05
everybody down in Tampa like Dr placenia
00:22:08
all the
00:22:10
nurses Terry
00:22:12
Sarah Mt all the L nurses they know who
00:22:15
they
00:22:16
are and thank
00:22:19
you and watch what you eat
00:22:28
a
00:22:35
[Music]
