Weber City Woman Died From Salmonella Poisoning

A Tri-Cities woman who died in a Weber City nursing home Nov. 24 might have fallen victim to the deadly salmonella typhimurium outbreak linked to tainted peanut butter products.
The Virginia Department of Health refuses to confirm her death as part of the national outbreak that has killed eight people, stating only that Southwestern Virginia had a single salmonella-related fatality in November. But state health officials in Tennessee, where the Weber City woman’s illness was diagnosed, have said they were involved in a case in which a patient died and the death was recorded as a Virginia resident.
Hester C. Fields, 78, of Kingsport, died at the Brian Health & Rehab Center in Weber City after suffering a high fever and diarrhea for nearly a week, according to medical reports provided to the Bristol Herald Courier.
Fields’ daughter, Gloria “Jeannie” Fields, believes her mother is a victim of the national crisis.
The mother and daughter had lived together. But, when Jeannie Fields needed multiple eye surgeries late last year, she thought her mother could be best cared for in a nursing home. The mother was supposed to reside at the short term, rehabilitation-based nursing home for about a month, returning home when the daughter fully recovered.
“[Mom] was doing her therapy, she was walking real good, and all of the sudden she was going down hill,” Jeannie Fields said.
Doctors initially suspected Hester Fields suffered from pneumonia, medical records indicate. Jeannie Fields said nursing home staff also warned that her mother’s illness might be part of a bug spreading through the nursing home.
“They asked me to leave the nursing home because mother had a stomach virus,” Jeannie Fields said. “They said they had five patients that [were sick] with it.”
Nursing home administrator Vickie Cox refused to comment Friday.

See Saturday’s Herald Courter for details on the woman’s diagnosis, the information from her medical records and why Fields and her attorney believe her mother had consumed products from the plant where the federal government has launched a criminal investigation over widespread salmonella illnesses.