E. Coli takes life of 8-year-old from Braintree

BRAINTREE, Mass. (MyFoxBoston.com) -- Eight years old, and suddenly gone. A little boy from Braintree fell sick and then passed away just days later due to E. Coli.

In a matter of 10 days, a Braintree family went from having a child with typical stomach-bug symptoms to not having him at all. And that they say is the hardest part, dealing with how quickly E. Coli can kill.

"We just have a huge hole in our family right now," the boy's father, Andrew, said.

Joshua Kaye was the middle child, and only boy in the family.

"He loved life, he loved adventure, he was just an action-oriented kid," Andrew said.

Joshua often played little league, soccer and with friends, all with a genetic disorder that left him wearing leg braces to ease chronic joint pain.

His dad says he carried a positive attitude even when he got sick at the end of June. He says it started with fatigue and diarrhea, much like a stomach bug, but quickly got worse.

"When he got bloody diarrhea we immediately took him to the emergency room and had him transferred to Children's," Andrew explained.

The state's Health Department confirmed that Joshua's diagnosis was an E. Coli bacteria infection, and he was gone in just 10 days despite the best efforts of those at Children's Hospital in Boston.

"The people there tried their absolute hardest the entire way through the process to do everything they could for Joshua," his dad said.

What matters now is his family's response to the reality that none of us are promised tomorrow.

"Making sure we're eating dinner together and at the dinner table not in the living room or after dinner making sure we don't have five people in a room all looking at different screens and that we're just doing more family activities," Andrew said.

Joshua's family is already raising money to carry out his philanthropic dreams. Donations can be made to the Joshua Kaye Foundation at www.gofundme.com/bbq3fc or at Rockland Trust Bank.

In regard to E. Coli, it's worth noting that only in rare cases is it fatal and doctors don't believe Joshua's genetic disorder had any connection to the outcome of the disease nor have they been able to pinpoint where he may have contracted it, but it appears to be an isolated incident.

Cox Media Group