Mother's fury over E coli farm

Published on Monday 14 September 2009 22:15

A WOMAN told yesterday of her anger after her two-year-old twin sons were admitted to hospital with kidney failure following an outbreak of E coli at a petting farm.

The toddlers are among dozens of victims of the bug which broke out at Godstone Farm in Surrey and there are now fears that tens of thousands of children could have been exposed to the infection since it was first identified in August.

Speaking from her home in Kent, Tracy Mock said: "I'm just so angry that they allowed the place to stay open.

"I heard on the news that cases were reported there on 27 and 28 August, yet we went there on 31 August. Why wasn't it shut down before then? If it had been, my two boys wouldn't be in hospital on dialysis."

The twins – Aaron and Todd – are now being treated at St Thomas' Hospital in London, along with two other children.

They are said to be in a stable condition.

Their grandfather, Brian Mock, 68, from Ashford, Kent, said

said the boys were both "stable but poorly" and could be in hospital for up to two weeks.

Meanwhile, investigators were trying to pinpoint the precise cause of the outbreak, more than two weeks after the first case was reported. Teams were conducting tests in and around animal pens in a bid to identify the source of the bugs.

Dr Graham Bickler, regional director for the Health Protection Agency, said: "Health colleagues have taken samples from animal faeces and we are now waiting to see what they find."

The farm, which attracts 2,000 visitors a day at peak times, was not closed to the public until Saturday.

During that time, tens of thousands of visitors may have passed through its doors. Thirty-six cases of the E coli bacterial infection have been confirmed, of which 12 are in children.