Child’s Death Linked to E. Coli From Apple Juice

An outbreak of E. coli illness linked to a California company’s unpasteurized apple juice claimed its first fatality Friday with the death of a 15-month-old Colorado girl.

Anna Gimmestad, an only child, died at Children’s Hospital in Denver after a two-week battle with kidney failure, known to be a complication of an especially virulent bacterial strain known as E. coli O157:H7. The child’s parents, from Greeley, Colo., said the child had consumed fruit “smoothies” made by Odwalla Inc., based in Half Moon Bay, Calif.

Colorado health officials cautioned that a definitive link between the baby’s death and Odwalla products had not yet been established. They said that tissue samples were being sent to the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta and that test results would be available next week.

However, officials maintained that the juice was the probable cause of death.

“We believe that this child’s illness . . . was related to consumption of an Odwalla apple juice product,” said Richard Hoffman, Colorado’s state epidemiologist.

To date, 49 individuals in Washington, Colorado, California and British Columbia have suffered from bloody diarrhea and other symptoms of E. coli O157:H7, the strain that in 1993 caused three children to die and hundreds of other individuals to become ill from eating tainted hamburgers at Jack in the Box restaurants.

The outbreak prompted Odwalla last week to pull from store shelves 16 products containing apple or carrot juice, all of them processed at its Central Valley plant in Dinuba.

Legal experts noted that, if test results tie the death to Odwalla, the nation’s largest seller of fresh juices could face potentially dire consequences to its reputation, if not its financial health.

“There’s no question a death does vault it into a higher realm,” said George J. Siedel III, a professor of business law at the University of Michigan’s School of Business Administration. “The consequences of legal liability are greater, and it becomes a much more serious problem in the eyes of the public.”

Also on Friday, the first lawsuit resulting from the outbreak was filed in Seattle on behalf of a 6-year-old boy who required abdominal surgery. The suit was filed against Odwalla and Starbucks Corp. Many of the contaminated juices were purchased at Starbucks outlets.

The suit seeks unspecified damages for pain and suffering and punitive damages on the theory that Starbucks and Odwalla should have known that unpasteurized apple juice posed a risk.

In another development, federal health inspectors said they have found no traces of E. coli bacteria at Odwalla’s Dinuba plant. The California Department of Health said it will look into whether the contamination could have come from irrigation or fertilizer in the San Joaquin Valley. Investigators also will try to determine whether any apples were picked off the ground, where they might have been exposed to animal fecal matter, or if there was contamination in trucks.

The price of Odwalla shares tumbled $2.688 Friday to $10.375 on the Nasdaq Stock Market. On Oct. 31, when Odwalla announced its voluntary recall, the stock lost 34% of its value, sinking to $12.125.

The company has recalled millions of dollars worth of products and, because of consumers’ concerns, has suffered lost sales of citrus-based juices that were not a part of the recall.

Odwalla has said only that “our short-term sales impact is significant.” On Oct. 21, the company reported a 65% gain in annual sales, to $59.2 million for the fiscal year that ended Aug. 31. The company had net income of $633,000.

Known for environmental and corporate sensitivity, Odwalla has won high marks so far for its handling of the crisis. The company has offered to pay the medical expenses of ill individuals and have visited with their families.

The company expressed sadness about the girl’s death. Her parents, Chad and Christy Gimmestad, were at her bedside, as they had been 24 hours a day during her illness.

“Our hearts go out to the family, and our primary concern at this moment is to see that we are doing everything we can to help them,” Greg Steltenpohl, cofounder and chairman, said in a statement.

Associated Press and Reuters news services contributed to this story.