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Family shares memories of E. coli victim

After a story ran Friday in The Morning Herald and The Daily Mail, reporters and television satellite trucks waited outside the home of Warren and Corinne Swartz of Hagerstown.

The couple received many interview requests after word got out about the death of Corinne’s mother, June E. Dunning, from E. coli, possibly due to tainted spinach.

 After a day to themselves, the Swartz’s invited media into their home on Saturday to share memories of Dunning, and retell the days before she died September 13th at age 86.



Dunning’s death certificate lists E. coli 0157:H as a cause, but Warren Swartz said Saturday that other paperwork confirms the strain as 0157:H7. That is the strain that has sickened at least 166 people in 25 states who ate fresh spinach, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

A Wisconsin woman’s death has been attributed to bad spinach. The deaths of Dunning — who ate bagged spinach three times in five days before she was hospitalized — and a 2-year-old Idaho boy are being studied for possible connections to the outbreak.

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