142 E. coli cases connected to Calgary-area daycares confirmed; 26 sick kids in hospital

Cases linked to daycare E. coli outbreak spike A class-action lawsuit has been started as the number of E. coli cases linked to Calgary-area daycares has spiked again.

The number of confirmed E. coli cases connected to 11 Calgary-area daycares continues to spike, reaching 142 as of Friday afternoon.

Alberta Health Services (AHS) had the number at 128, 24 hours prior.

And 96 the day before that.

Fifty-six earlier in the week.

Among Friday's count of 142 cases are 26 children sick enough to be admitted to hospital.

Five were admitted and then discharged.

And 11 have developed a serious condition known as hemolytic uremic syndrome (HUS).

Brittany Chapman's three-year-old daughter Taylor is getting daily blood tests and the family is waiting to see if she gets better.

"Unfortunately, she's not recovering as fast as many of the other children," Chapman said.

Chapman called her daughter's ordeal "beyond traumatizing."

Among those discharged is Sarah Macdonald's four-year-old son Lachlan.

"This was just on another level, where I felt helpless," Macdonald said.

"It's just so unlike anything I've ever seen, so it was scary to wonder what's taking all these kids out."

AHS has declined, for privacy reasons, to say exactly how many of the children have been placed on dialysis.

But AHS did say it is "very few."

Dialysis machines have been brought in from another site, so there is adequate supply, and supply of vital sign monitors and IV pumps has been increased as well.

AHS says there is sufficient staffing at the Alberta Children's Hospital, where 25 of the 26 hospitalized children are.

The other hospitalized child is being treated at the Peter Lougheed Centre.

No secondary spread has occurred outside affected households, AHS says.

According to AHS, only a small amount of secondary spread has occurred within affected households.

It is expected the case count will stabilize going forward but AHS says it's not yet clear what the weekend will bring.

Six Fueling Brains Academy locations in Calgary and five other sites will remain closed until the issue is resolved.

Public health inspectors have collected and are testing food samples from Fueling Minds, the central kitchen used by all the daycares.

Fueling Minds is the same company as Fueling Brains.

Friday's update comes as a Calgary lawyer said she's preparing a potential class-action lawsuit on behalf of the families.

Maia Tomljanovic, who has worked on similar cases in the past, said she has spoken to dozens of parents whose children have been infected, and that she's aware there are many others.

She said it's common for class-action lawsuits in such cases because of the number of claimants.

"It can be very difficult for the courts to handle the numerous individual claims being litigated at the same time," she said.

Tomljanovic said they are in the "early days" of potentially filing a lawsuit.

"Another mode that can be taken is to run individual claims alongside one another in what is, essentially, a mass tort."

She said it would take years to litigate and that most of the parents are focused on their children's health at this time.

Fueling Brains Academy co-founders Faisal Alimohd and Anil Karim issued the following statement on Friday:

"The health and safety of our children, parents and staff continues to be our priority as we work through this challenging time.

"Right now, we are focused on continuing to work with Alberta Health Services (AHS) in their investigation, deep cleaning our facilities and supporting families.

"The exact source of the outbreak has still not been identified and we are continuing to review our policies, procedures, and sourcing related to food services for our facilities.

"We understand a lawsuit may have been filed, however, as it is a legal matter, we cannot provide further comment."

AHS says facilities will only reopen if and when there is confidence it is safe to do so.

Four can reopen next week.

Inspections are being done and cleaning directions are being given, AHS says.

More than 2,000 stool test kits have been sent to families.

Lab capacity has been increased.

It's expected phone calls will go out on Monday and children will be able to return next week, so long as they meet criteria.

AHS says negative tests take longer to come in, to ensure it's not a false negative,

Teams are working "thoroughly and thoughtfully" to reduce lab wait times, AHS says.

With files from Alesia Fieldberg and The Canadian Press