MIDLAND — Two newborns living with their families in the same West Texas neighborhood were earlier this year diagnosed with botulism, a rare — and in some cases, fatal — illness caused by a toxin that attacks the body’s nerves.
Two common ways infants contract botulism are through the environment and food. The Midland Health Department has not confirmed the cause of the exposure to the toxin that infected the three children, according to a spokesperson. However, the spokesperson ruled out food. In 2023, Texas documented 12 cases of infant botulism, about one a month — the highest in a four-year period — according to data obtained by The Texas Tribune. In the previous three years, the state averaged 10 cases, said Kenneth Davis, manager for food and water-borne diseases and high-consequence infections at the Texas Department of State Health Services.Two of those are the Midland cases. Jana and Foster Bowman’s 4-month-old contracted botulism at the end of January.
Once botulism toxins find their way into the human body, they shock the nervous system, working downward from the head, slowly paralyzing the infant’s ability to move, said Jennifer Zheng, a family physician at UT Health East Texas, who has treated cases of infant botulism.Karen Mappolitano and Brandon Dyke spent 30 hours in and out of a Midland emergency room, searching for answers when their baby got sick in January. Their baby had stopped eating and his body was limp.
Rebecca Lineham had gone through a similar ordeal months earlier. One August morning, Lineham’s newborn abruptly stopped eating, she said. The next morning, the family’s pediatrician referred them to the local hospital in Midland, where medical teams there hooked the baby to an IV to prevent dehydration. Hours later, a nurse held him up, noticing the body was limp. She alerted the doctor, who later arranged a transfer to a Lubbock hospital.