The country’s lone death related to the McDonald’s E. coli outbreak was a Marine and firefighter who loved to hunt and fish and moved to Colorado to be closer to his family, particularly his eight grandchildren, 13 great-grandchildren and great-great-grandchild.  

Smith became ill days after eating two Quarter Pounders with slivered onions on two separate visits, according to reports. He became ill and was hospitalized Oct. 3. He died on Oct. 20, according to his obituary. 

His family declined to speak about his death with The Denver Gazette, but his obituary indicated that his funeral services were held Oct. 29.

Smith, 88, is the sole person confirmed to have died from E. coli O157:H7  poisoning from the outbreak.

In all, there were 90 cases and 27 hospitalizations in 13 states, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which said “more illnesses have been reported, but they are from before McDonald’s and Taylor Farms took action to remove onions from food service locations.”

The CDC added that because both companies took action with their product, the risk to the public is now “very low.” 

McDonald’s pulled Quarter Pounders off the menu at roughly 3,000 stores after the U.S. FDA determined that the burger’s slivered raw onions, which were supplied by Taylor Farms, were the likely cause of E. coli contamination.

Further, the FDA said that it is investigating yellow onions, which were grown in Washington state. 

Taylor Farms has a distribution center in Colorado Springs.

The outbreak hit Colorado especially hard — the state recorded more than two dozen cases.

Infectious disease experts said that the particular strain of E. coli seen in this outbreak is “the bogeyman” of all of the different types because of the toxins it produces.

“We all have E. coli in our gut but the 157:H7 E. coli strain carries an extra toxin, which kills the cells in your intestines and can disseminate into the kidneys,” said Dr. David Merriam, Metropolitan State University of Denver assistant biology professor.

Already this year, the CDC has reported two other 157:H7 E. coli outbreaks — one from organic walnuts sold in bins and another from Raw Farm brand raw cheddar cheese, which made seven people sick, including some Colorado residents. The investigations into both of those outbreaks have been completed.

Merriam said that those two incidents were not as big as this one involving the onions in McDonald’s Quarter Pounders. 

Before federal regulations were tightened around the beef industry, an E. coli outbreak tied to Jack in the Box burgers killed four people and sent more than 170 to the hospital in the early 1990s.

In September, deli meat from the Boar’s Head plant in Virginia was found to have caused the largest U.S. outbreak of listeria in more than a decade. Almost 60 people were reported as infected with the foodborne bacterial illness, and 10 people died.

A quick response by public health agencies is vital in saving lives, said Tatiana Bailey, executive director of Data-Driven Economic Strategies, a Springs company that compiles and analyzes health and economic data.

“If it wasn’t identified quickly, and we had a lot of people getting sick before we could trace where it’s coming from” the devastating impact of an outbreak is hard to predict, she said. “People kind of take for granted clean water, clean food, immunizations and so forth that these public health agencies provide … but the dollars and cents that goes into public health agencies for this kind of tracking and testing pays for itself in spades.”

The CDC estimates that for every documented case of foodborne illness, another 27 cases go unreported.

McDonald’s returned the Quarter Pounder to its menu in 900 stores in Colorado and Wyoming last month, but without slivered onions. 

Stephanie Earls contributed to this article.