Toddler rushed to hospital after vomiting ‘blackish-green’ bile. Then the mother admitted what she had been giving her child

A California mother claims she has been stricken with guilt after her 17-month-old daughter had to be rushed to the hospital. Toddler Brooklyn Marris was sent to the ER after two days of vomiting, but doctors quickly realized she needed more serious help and transported her to another hospital.

Emily Marris, Brooklyn’s mother, initially grew concerned after her child vomited over the backseat of the family car on the way back from swimming lessons. For the next two days, Brooklyn continued to throw up “yellow bile,” and then later, “blackish-green” bile. 

The child was taken to the ER, but doctors became alarmed by the results of Brooklyn’s bloodwork and had her transported to a pediatric intensive care unit 70 miles away, according to ProPublica.org.

Brooklyn’s condition was bad. Doctors put the 17-month-old on a ventilator to help her breathe and a dialysis machine to aid her failing kidneys. Emily Marris and her husband could only watch as their daughter lay barely conscious, hooked up to wires. Doctors said she had developed hemolytic uremic syndrome, which is when microscopic blood clots form and clog vessels and destroy organs. The suspected cause of the illness was E. Coli.

Brooklyn’s mother admitted she had given her daughter raw milk

Emily walked the doctors through her daughter’s diet, telling them that she had been giving Brooklyn raw milk, as she was unable to breastfeed her daughter due to pain medication she was on, and she claimed store-bought cow’s milk had made Brooklyn constipated. The mother was also wary of processed food, as her daughter had been born premature and was, what she called, a “miracle baby.”

Instead, Emily turned to an alternative: raw goat’s milk, which she learned about through a Facebook group where mothers praised its supposed health benefits. Convinced this was the solution to her problem, Emily picked up a bottle the same day and gave it to Brooklyn, claiming that her daughter took to it well.

The mother continued giving the unpasteurized milk to her daughter for six months, until the vomiting started. Doctors told Emily that the milk was the likely cause of the E. Coli infection, as the bacteria thrives in animal guts.

After spending many days on dialysis, Brooklyn was able to recover. Unfortunately, the infection may leave her with lifelong health problems. After coming out of the hospital, Brooklyn walked with a slight limp and no longer slept through the nights. Doctors also said she would likely face long-term kidney issues and would never be able to drink alcohol.

Emily Marris isn’t the first mother to experience this, but she says that she hopes the experience her family had to go through can serve as a warning to others: “I’m going to hate myself to the day I die for having allowed that to happen,” she said.