Oct. 29, 1999
Eladio Seda: "It has been a difficult moment for me and my family, for his wife - she's only 21 years old."
Eladio Seda says his son, Eric, and his new bride had their whole life ahead of them when they exchanged vows in the Salt Lake LDS Temple two months ago.
Now his son is fighting for his life.
And no one knows what's causing a terrible infection, that's taken him close to death.
Eric Seda is in critical condition at St. Mark's Hospital tonight. Science Specialist Ed Yeates has the story.
Physicians at St. Mark's thought they were dealing with a case of e-coli food poisoning when Eric was admitted to intensive care.
But when the blood test came back - it was negative.
On September 30th, not long after their honeymoon, Eric ate a hamburger at a local fast food restaurant. He got painfully sick that night, but thought it would pass.
When it didn't he saw a doctor. His father says that's when the nightmare began.
Eladio Seda: "They say that it's a three-day virus. That's what the doctors we took him to say. We also took him to an emergency room twice, and they say that's a virus... just take some medicine and in three days, it will go out."
It didn't "go out" as Eladio says. Instead, the sickness worsened.
His son was conscious and walking when he entered St. Mark's Hospital. Within hours, his life was slipping away in intensive care.
Mark Oliver, M.D./ Infectious Diseases, St. Mark's Hospital: "He's critically ill. He's on a ventilator. He's requiring medicines just to keep his blood pressure elevated. We're having to give him blood products every day."
Eric has a rare condition called hemolytic uremic syndrome. But the virus or bacteria which triggered it all is still a mystery, and that is extremely unsual. In fact, Dr. Oliver is investigating another possibly similar case at the Veterans Hospital.
As a last resort, St. Mark's doctors borrowed what is called a plasma feresis machine, which takes Eric's plasma - a portion of his blood - filters it, then puts it back again.
It's an expensive procedure, and so far, Eric's insurance company says it's not covered.
Dr. Oliver says after that feresis treatment, this is perhaps the first day Eric has shown a little improvement.
But he's still critical and it's too early, he says, to predict an outcome.
