On a summer day in California, 17-month-old Brooklyn Marris suddenly vomited across the backseat of her family’s car.
The vomiting continued for two days, progressing from “yellow bile” to a “blue-green” substance. Doctors at an emergency room quickly determined that Brooklyn needed specialized care at a children’s hospital roughly 70 miles away.
At the hospital, Brooklyn was placed on a ventilator and started on dialysis as her kidneys began to fail. She suffered cardiac arrest three times, leaving her parents uncertain whether she would survive, according to ProPublica.
Doctors ultimately determined that Brooklyn had been infected with a dangerous strain of E. coli. Her parents believe the bacteria came from a drink they had given her for about six months to relieve constipation.
Doctors saved Brooklyn’s life. Now her mother hopes the family’s ordeal will warn others against making the same potentially fatal decision: feeding a child raw milk.
“I’m going to hate myself to the day I die for having allowed that to happen,” Emily Marris said.
Brooklyn’s story
At 48, Emily had desperately hoped for a third child. Brooklyn, she told ProPublica, was her “miracle baby.”
Brooklyn arrived seven weeks early with a low birth weight and underdeveloped lungs. She spent her first month in a neonatal intensive care unit.
The experience fueled Emily’s determined effort to “detoxify” the family’s home. She removed synthetic materials and cut out ultra-processed foods.
When Emily began taking a new medication for chronic pain that could pass into breast milk, she looked for an alternative to breastfeeding. She rejected organic infant formula because of its additives and said store-bought cow’s milk left Brooklyn constipated.
Emily then turned to a Facebook group, where mothers praised the supposed benefits of raw — or unpasteurized — goat’s milk. One member directed her to a farm just 10 miles away.
Emily bought a jug that same day and noticed it was still warm. Brooklyn drank it readily, and her bowel movements became more regular. The routine continued for six months — until the vomiting began.
At the hospital, Brooklyn developed hemolytic uremic syndrome, a severe illness in which damaged blood vessels form clots that can injure vital organs, including the kidneys. E. coli is the most common cause.
Brooklyn remained on dialysis for several days and eventually recovered. However, the developmental progress she had made before the illness came to a halt.
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She was left with a slight limp and could no longer sleep through the night. Doctors warned that she might face lasting kidney problems and would never be able to drink alcohol.
The real danger of raw milk
Although Emily believed she was making an informed choice at the time, she now carries intense guilt. “I’m the one that gave it to her,” she told ProPublica. “Just how stupid could I be?”
Raw, unpasteurized milk has gained popularity in recent years. A 2023 study found that 4.4% of Americans said they had consumed it during the previous year, while 1% reported drinking it every week.
Researchers say there is no scientific basis for claims that raw milk improves nutrition, prevents lactose intolerance or supplies beneficial “good” bacteria. Those assertions, they say, are myths.
Pasteurization — the process of heating milk to kill dangerous pathogens — was developed more than a century ago for a reason.
“Prior to pasteurization, there was significant illness from consumption of raw milk,” Dr. Uzma Syed, a board-certified infectious disease specialist and Fellow of the Infectious Diseases Society of America, previously told The Post. “We have been fortunate to have a significant decline in these infections and illnesses in the general population due to safer milk production and consumption.”
Some studies show up to a third of raw milk has pathogens, even if it’s from a healthy animal or the milk appears to be of good quality. That can happen due to contamination, since bacteria lingers everywhere from the cow’s udders to the farmer’s hands.
And that contamination can be lots of things — including cow feces.
In fact, people are 100 times more likely to get a foodborne illness from drinking raw milk compared to pasteurized milk.
In addition to E. coli, anything from campylobacter to salmonella, listeria, and bird flu can be found in unpasteurized milk. These are especially dangerous to kids, older adults, pregnant women, and anyone with a weakened immune system.
In California, only licensed farms can sell raw milk, though unlicensed farms like the one Emily bought from can also sell it, as long as it’s labeled as pet food. After a state investigation was opened, the farm owner told them the milk was for pets only and claimed that it was advertised as such.
Days after Brooklyn got sick, a six-year-old who’d drank milk from the same farm also got deathly ill. Emily joined this second family to sue the farm owner and the business, alleging hey had negligently sold the families contaminated raw milk that was presented as “fit for human consumption.”
The case is ongoing. Baker told ProPublica that the farm will “fully defend against the allegations by Plaintiffs.”