How woman's water bottle landed her in the ER

Kae, a 19-year-old college student hailing from Athens, Georgia is recounting a cautionary tale following an illness caused by improper cleaning of her mold-infested reusable Owala water bottle.

Kae, known as 'Kaebrie' on social media, shared a video recounting her experience which has garnered over 3.3 million views within the five days since its posting on TikTok.

She clarified that her illness might be attributed to her forgetting to remove the silicone stopper from her bottle.

“Hey, this is a PSA to anyone who owns an Owala,” she said in the video. “I got sick in August… I had a cold that, minor, you know? Lasted a week and then didn’t go away. Went to urgent care: bronchitis,” she added.

“Of course, they give me an inhaler and then some pills and I, of course, break out in hives as a result of the pills,” she explained.

She even added that "the bronchitis takes longer than it should to go away," She finally got better after three weeks but then again she was  greeted with a sinus infection.

After revisiting urgent care and receiving antibiotics, she mentioned experiencing about a week and a half of being free from illness before falling sick again.

She mentioned enduring a prolonged cold that lasted for weeks, eventually culminating in "the most severe sore throat of my life."

On her fourth visit to urgent care within a single school semester, she recounted that the doctor examined her throat and remarked, “Oh, my goodness. It’s a really angry throat are you in pain?”

Prescribed antibiotics once more, she resolved to clean her water bottle, leading to a startling revelation. “This is where it goes downhill,” she explained.

“First of all, I know I don’t clean it as much as I should. No one does. I know it’s full of bacteria,” she continued.

After cleaning the bottle and researching how to properly clean the lid on Google for guidance, she stumbled upon online forums like Reddit, where people mentioned that the silicone piece of her water bottle needed to be removed.

Kae expressed regret, stating, “I didn’t know it came out."

Upon finally removing it, she discovered that the stopper was covered in mold that had penetrated the silicone.

Afterward, she ordered a replacement on Amazon and now her bottle is in pristine condition.

“Once I cleaned it … got better,” she said.

“Haven’t gotten sick since… I had mold poisoning from my water bottle”, she added.