Hi! I was hoping someone could help me out a bit with this. I received the below mass email about a child who contracted salmonella from a reptile and since then, all of my co-workers have been printing it out and putting it in my mailbox. Normally I just delete this stuff but I hate when herps get bad press. I know there are urband legend web sites dedicated to disproving all the bogus scams out there but I could not find anything about if this is true or not. Any help would be appreciated in pointing me to a link or emailing me IF it is true/false. Oh, and if you reply to this, Bill Gates himself will send you a check for $10,000.00.lol.

The E-MAIL:
This story was last updated in May of 2005. Since then we have found out that Elijah has Infantile Spasms and are working with Hopkins neurologists to find something that will work to hopefully cure them. Elijah also has been having problems with his shunt. He is still not holding his head up and is still at a less then one month level but through all this he has brought our family and everyone around us endless joy!

I have updated Elijah's story. Please send this to everyone in your mail box and please if possible take it to your gynecologists or your children's pediatrician ... I am sending these to local drs and need everyone's help... I want this information to go as far and wide as possible! I NEVER NEVER want another child to go through what Elijah has gone through at such a young age! Thanks so much for your help!Meredith Johnson

updated May 2005

Elijah's Story

On November 24, 2004 I delivered my son Elijah Rockwell Johnson. He was perfect! My husband and I couldn't be happier! My daughter Desierae was also very excited to be a big sister. We stayed in the hospital where I delivered Elijah for three days, we came home on November 27th.

On November 28th Elijah slept a lot, I thought he had worn himself out staying up every night but my husband had a bad feeling. Elijah stopped nursing that evening around 11:00 pm. We thought that maybe the tylonel that we were giving him for his circumcision was making him drowsy so we stopped giving it and immediately his fever went up. We called the pediatrician around 1:00 a.m. and took him to Upper Chesapeake's emergency room. By the time we arrived Elijah's organs had started failing he had stopped breathing and he was having seizures. We were informed that he would have to be flown to Johns Hopkins and asked to kiss him in case he did not make it.

We later found out that he had a stroke that killed most of the right side of his brain. We soon found out that Elijah had meningitis caused by salmonella which came from our daughter's lizard. We purchased the lizard only one month before Elijah was born.. and ironically it was for my daughter's big sister gift! We were told no child under five should EVER be around reptiles of any kind but this is the first we had ever heard of this! There were no warnings in the pet store and we received no information when we purchased the lizard. We were told that Elijah may not make it through the next 48 hrs. He was put on antibiotics along with 3 blood pressure medicines and a breathing tube. The happiest time of our lives had turned into a living nightmare.

About 5 days later it seemed Elijah was doing better, he had opened his eyes and started crying over the breathing machine. Sadly though, the salmonella had built up in his spine and Elijah now had 187,000 white blood cells in his spinal fluid alone. A normal baby has around 5 white blood cells! Elijah's heart rate dropped to under 30 and they had to give chest compressions. We almost lost him again. An EEG was done and there was no brain activity at all other then seizures, we were told that 80% of Elijah's brain had turned into scar tissue and that it would never be able to be replaced. We had a meeting where my husband and I were asked if we wanted to let him go but the thought never crossed our minds. I prayed and prayed for the strength to make it through for my son, I did not pray for Elijah to live, only for him not to suffer.

Elijah is a strong boy and within three weeks he was off the breathing tube and no longer had to take the blood pressure medicines. He was slowly weened off of the oxygen and was able to open his eyes shortly after. We would soon learn that Elijah was now blind and could not cry or suck. He had developed hydrocephelus and an abscess had formed from the bacteria. He had two brain surgeries the first week in January and developed a staph infection from the catheter that was put into his brain to drain some of the fluid. He would later have two more brain surgeries all performed by Dr Ben Carson. He picked up a respiratory infection called RSV while in the hospital. Elijah now has a permanent shunt in his head and eats from a feeding tube. He also has a seizure disorder which he takes medicine for to keep them under control. We were able to come home on March 14, 2005 after 3 1/2 long months in the hospital.

Elijah's outlook is not very good but we are very hopeful. He has cerebral palsy and does not make any noise . He can not hold his toys and he does not laugh. He will never see again. He still does not cry and Elijah had a feeding tube (called a g-tube) placed into his stomach in early May. Elijah still can not hold his head up and he is now six months old.

Our house looks sort of like a hospital room and I feel like a nurse! Elijah has therapists that come to the house 4 days a week (including a therapist that worked at the MD school for the blind) along with a home nurse who visits twice a week.

People ask how my husband and I do all that we do but I just tell them that we are no stronger then anyone else! We do this all out of the love for our baby boy! Rarely we will see him smile when my husband swings him and that is the one wish that I had when this all started, we will do everything possible to make Elijah's life the highest quality possible! Our faith in God and Elijah's strength is what has kept us going through all of the hard times... It is not only our job to be there for Elijah as loving parents but a privilege that we have him in our lives. He is the best thing that has ever happened to us and has made us appreciate every moment that we have to share with our loved ones.

Ellijah was on WBAL channel 11 news in Baltimore in May of 2005. This is the link and if you click on the picture of the reptile his story should play. http://www.thewbalchannel.com/news/4506427/detail.html#

The channel did an undercover investigation of MD pet stores and found that there were many stores who violated the law which stated that there should be signs posted within 3 feet of each reptile cage and that the purchaser should receive information warning of the dangers of reptiles and salmonella. No pregnant women, small children, elderly, or people with low immune systems should be around reptiles at all! 50% of all reptiles carry salmonella. The salmonella bacteria can live on surfaces such as light switches, carpets, clothes etc for up to 60 days.

We are so blessed to have the support of friends and family and we thank everyone from the bottom of our hearts for thoughts and prayers. I will happily include anyone in Elijah updates as he gets older and send pictures if you send me an e-mail to (I left out the person's email in case it is a false story).


Any help...is it fake? real? ? ? Oh..and there were a lot of pictures in the email of a child in a hospital. I didn't include them here for obvious reasons.
Thanks, Jason

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