Medical Questions

[proud2BlibKansan]

I posted this in the lounge too but have no replies yet so I decided to post it here as well.

This is so sad. I am a teacher at an elem school and we just found out today that one of our little girls is dying. She was perfectly healthy a week ago. Then on Thanksgiving Day, she got sick. It was her liver. It failed Friday, they did a transplant and it didn't take. She is now in a coma and the doctors say there is no hope.

My question to any medical experts - WTF? Can a kid go from being perfectly healthy to liver failure in just a few days? We are in shock and struggling for answers. Her mom doesn't speak English and so we are dealing with translators to get more info for us. But I was hoping someone here would know if this is a bizarre isolated incident or what in the world could have caused this to happen.

Thanks.

[Richard D]

1. It's so sad

I'm not a liver specialist, but I know that acute liver failure can be caused by some virus and also by poisoning from mushrooms and tylenol. Sometimes it just happens for no know reason as well.

[proud2BlibKansan]

2. Thanks

Her family is from Honduras. Her mom thinks she took too much cold medicine.

[The Spirit of JFK]

3. Devastating

From http://www.cincinnatichildrens.org/svc/prog/liver/diseases/acute-liver-failure.htm?view=content#symptoms

"Acute liver failure has many causes. However, most of the time the cause of acute liver failure in children cannot be determined. One study showed that this was the case for about 44 percent of all children who were diagnosed with acute liver failure and about 63 percent for children with acute liver failure under 2 years of age.

Acetaminophen (such as Tylenol®) is an example of a common medicine that can affect how the liver works. This can occur if a child is given the wrong dosage of the medicine or if too much is taken in a short amount of time.

Acetaminophen hepatotoxicity (damaging to the liver) accounts for 16 percent of childhood acute liver failure cases in the United States and generally occurs in older children.

Other causes of acute liver failure are metabolic conditions (problems related to the physical and chemical processes that occur inside the liver that must happen in order for a person to live), infections / viruses and cardiovascular conditions (conditions that cause a lack of blood supply to the liver).

Causes of acute liver failure seem to vary based on the age of the child. Infection or metabolic conditions at birth are the most common causes of acute liver failure in children under 2 years old. Hepatitis caused by a virus (such as hepatitis A or B) and drug-induced liver failure, such as acetaminophen hepatotoxicity, are more likely in older children."

[proud2BlibKansan]

4. Thanks, great info

Is it typical that they die so fast? I think that is the worst part - that she seemed perfectly healthy just last week. I guess when your liver fails, you don't linger for long.

[Dear Maggie]

5. I've heard of this before

A gulf war vet shared that last year their little girl turned 10 years old and was diagnosed with hepatitis. It was an autoimmune hepatitis and her immune system was attacking her own liver. She died Dec, 2003

He knew I was studying such issues and asked me if I had heard of that. I said, "No, but that it would be the kind of thing that 2-butoxyethanol would do" Liver and kidneys and other bodily systems including blood are at risk.

The blood damage that is not found is autoimmune hemolytic anemia. Maybe you could ask the doctors whether or not she has that? They have to check the 'retic rate' and other things like whether or not the red blood cells are immature and whether or not there is blood in urine. www.valdezlink.com/psa.htm The hemoglogin and hematocrit that they first look at usually is OK except in the most extreme cases.

Parents harmed by this chemical can pass along some of it to their children because it is a teratogen. www.valdezlink.com/teratogens.htm
and if the parents are doing meanial work, like housekeeping, cleaning of buildings and such, they could very easily run into this chemical.

http://www.valdezlink.com/gwv_symptoms.htm#child

Why I studied this chemical (Had I not done so, I NEVER would have known or recognized its patterns or found the common denominator)
http://www.seattlepress.com/features/forum/viewtopic.php?p=134#134

[Dear Maggie]

6. Same thing as SIDS? ... just an older child?

Sudden Infant Death Syndrome http://www.sids.org/

I suppose any time you see the term ... "syndrome' it means that the doctors recognize what your are talking about exists, but they don't know what causes it.

If people only realized that the harm of 2-buotyxethanol affects THEM. It is so pervasive in our country; it has been so for so long; that almost every one knows someone and most likely would even have close family members affected by it.

In listening to the stories of the gulf war vets; their children born before they were deployed (& spouses) in some cases came down with the 'gulf war syndrome' too.

I've learned that second hand exposure is not that hard to come into; along with possibly being born with a little exposure from our parents ... and getting our own in life;

Now, a baby can't take as much as a grown person can.

This gulf war vet describes a wrenching story of the loss of his child: www.valdezlink.com/gwv_dead_child.htm

Oct 11, 2000 by Jody Crockett, "I am JDC4058. I served in the storm bravely and honorably just like the majority of you out there. I have something tearing my heart out and I would like to know if there is anyone out there who has suffered the same thing as I have.

In November of 1992 my wife gave birth to by all appearances a healthy baby girl. 15 days later my baby girl was dead from an unknown illness. All of her organs began shutting down all of a sudden and there was just nothing that could be done to save her. Her liver was the first organ to fail.

After that all of her other organs just shut down one by one. After her funeral I hired a medical malpractice lawyer to find out just what she died of as the resident pathologist in the hospital in which she died could not give me a definitive cause for her death. Her death certificate states that she died of the Herpes Simplex Virus. That is a funny thing as neither my wife or my self suffer from any type of Herpes Simplex Virus.

I don't know what to do. I don't know where to go for help. My heart is broken forever and I would dearly love for one of my comrades in arms to tell me what has happened to my beautiful little girl. Please help!"

[Dear Maggie]

7. Is this child - being exposed to n-butyl ether?

Cleaning is a hazardous profession ... what do the parents do for a living? Here's some info on a cleaning product that contains some of this type of chemical & even ethylene oxide: 409 Cleaner www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=105&topic_id=2193187#2193268

Did they notice their child having episodes of coughing or flu-like symptoms prior to this?

ALSO, second hand solvent exposure is something that people don't give much thought to ... I suspect 2nd hand solvent exposure to this family & new baby:

A new mom and her husband, and 6 mo old baby are visiting his family this Christmas. She just shared that a couple of days ago baby was throwing up and had bad diarrhea ... but was in a happy mood and didn't seem to have a fever.

At first I looked at it like most people do, oh, everyone is coming down with the flu. Then it hit me. I suspect that this was most likely a response to a chemical exposure such as the common one I've been studying. So, has baby been in a freshly painted bedroom? Has someone who was holding her 15 minutes before ... been breathing these chemicals into her eyes?

I am concerned for them. I hope they will take this seriously ...

When things like this happen, there have been instances of the body organs shutting down. Maybe some SIDS is actually this? Even if nothing this serious happens, is it possible to get CFS & all those other effects? www.valdezlink.com/gwv_why_fatigue.htm

www.valdezlink.com/gwv_symptoms.htm#child

Then I remember that this young mom said that everyone wasn't feeling well, but it started with baby ... So I want to know who arrived in that household on Friday?

Suggestion:

If any adults go to the doctor have them check for blood in urine & get the retic rate www.valdezlink.com/psa.htm www.valdezlink.com/check_blood.htm#retic & also track it over time.

Do eyes burn & hurt? That is a clue - this is the primary route of exposure to this 2-butoxyethanol www.valdezlink.com/same.htm

Since I am only an ordinary person learning about this chemical the last 2 1/2 years, it took me a long time to realize that it has a lot of other names, too: Here's a list of synonyms: www.valdezlink.com/2-b_synonyms.htm

C6H14O2/CH3(CH2)2CH2OCH2CH2OH
CAS number 00111-76-2 (the double version is CAS #112-34-5)
This information I learned from an MSDS (Material Safety Data Sheet)
www.valdezlink.com/acute.htm

It is from an MSDS on what this chemical does to people and it is the best I have found. A doctor could check into the source site and get more information that is unavailable to me.

2-butoxyethanol MSDS www.valdezlink.com/inipol/pages/2-butoxy_msds.htm
I think what I'm talking about is the harm from n-butyl ethers. OSHA was checking into this chemical family Nov, 2002 for 46,000 auto workers. www.valdezlink.com/inipol/pages/comments.htm

Others around the world seem to know more about its harm than we do. Why is that? www.valdezlink.com/solvent_studies.htm#who www.valdezlink.com/generic.htm#fed