SURREY (NEWS1130) - A senior living at Kiwanis Park Place in Surrey has died, and the death may have been due to an E. coli infection. Fraser Health investigators believe the person contracted E-coli from food served in the independent-living facility.
Fraser Health isn't providing any information about the sex or age of the senior, who fell ill, was hospitalized and then tested positive for the E. coli bacteria along with two others in November.
Roy Thorpe-Dorward with the health authority says meals aren't often provided for the seniors.
"The seniors' residence offers a twice-weekly social meal preparation. They're independent living units so the seniors would all have their own kitchen facilities and so forth but they do offer this twice-weekly service."
That food service has been pulled for now.
He says because a couple of weeks had transpired between when the meal was consumed, and when the E. coli tests came back positive, they'll never know exactly where the contamination came from.
"Enough time had passed between them that all the food that had been prepared and served would have disposed of, and any cleaning surfaces would have been cleaned multiple times over."
The two others who fell ill have recovered.