Baby Nearly Dies Due to Germy Shopping Trolley

A mum has warned other parents of the dangers of unhygienic shopping trolleys after her 10-month-old son contracted different viruses including salmonella poisoning and meningitis.

Mum, Vivienne Wardrop, 35, from Gold Coast, was shopping at Coles in Helensvale Westfield, on Queensland’s Gold Coast, two weeks ago, along with her baby boy, Logan and placed him in a bassinet baby-holder of a shopping trolley.

Nearly 24 hours later, Logan developed severe diarrhoea, vomiting and was running a fever of 39.6 degrees. His diarrhoea was so bad that at one point, he started passing blood, so his mum took him to the doctor who said it was just a virus.

However, by early Thursday morning, Logan was so dehydrated Ms Wardrop had to take him to Gold Coast University Hospital, where staff found that his heart rate was up around 200 and 220 beats per minute – with a normal heart rate being around 80 – 140. After a number of tests, Logan was eventually diagnosed with adenovirus, rotavirus, salmonella and meningitis.

Adenovirus is an infection that affects the respiratory tract, eyes, intestines, urinary tract and the nervous system, while the rotavirus causes severe gastroenteritis and can be caused by close person-to-person contact and touching contaminated surfaces.

Ms Wardrop told Daily Mail Australia that because of this, Logan, who was born 11 weeks premature, spent 10 days in hospital and eight of those days were spent in the intensive care unit. “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.

Luckily, Logan is now home from the hospital since Saturday, but it will still be a week or more before he makes a full recovery.

Ms Wardrop said she believes the culprit was the unhygienic shopping trolley because she said that Logan had not eaten any normal food other than his formula that week and only had water before he got ill. “We spoke [with doctors] about who had been around, if they had been sick, where we had been, what he had eaten. We hadn’t been out of the house in a week,” she said.

She also told Kidspot about her son’s habit as a baby. “Logan is only 10-months-old so I put him in the baby capsule that’s attached to the trolley. His hands are always in his mouth so it is likely he ingested the germs,” she said.

However, Ms Wardrop clarified that she did not blame the supermarket for her son’s illness but wanted to raise awareness about the hygiene of trolleys. She then took this to Facebook saying:

“Just wanted to warn parents against using baby seats in trolley without wiping down or using a blanket.

“Didn’t even think about it just popped him in and did a quick shop. I hadn’t been anywhere with him in a week so doctors advised only place he could of [sic] gotten it.

“He ended up catching adenovirus, rotavirus, salmonella poisoning and got meningitis because of the strain on his body.

“Ended up with a central line as his veins were collapsing due to severe dehydration.

“He was in hospital for a total of 10 days and will still take another week or 2 to fully recover.

“So please be careful I never thought something like this could happen.

Meanwhile, a spokesperson for the supermarket giant tells 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.”

Sources: Dailymail.co.uk and Kidspot.com.au