Sarah Lewis, 30, of Freedom, California attended a dinner in May 2010 to celebrate her younger sister Stacy Walker's graduation from San Jose State.

Both Sarah and Stacy (above) ate the fruit-topped custard tarts that were served for dessert.

Sarah Lewis's whole family, including her daughters Hailey and Kyndall, seen here flanking Stacy Walker, attended the banquet at a Santa Clara, California restaurant.

Sarah's husband Chris with their daughter Hailey, 7, at the dinner. Only Sarah and Stacy ate the tarts.

Sarah's daughter Kyndall, 4, is shown here with the tart that her mother ate.

The next night, Sarah started feeling ill. By the following morning, she'd experienced diarrhea and vomiting, and was taken to an emergency room. Both Sarah and her sister Stacy had contracted salmonella from the eggs in the custard tarts. The salmonella attacked Sarah's digestive system, leading to massive infection and internal bleeding.

Sarah lost 30 pounds during two separate stays in the hospital over two months. She was sent to the cardiac unit at one point because of serious heart problems. Her daughters became distraught when visiting Sarah at the hospital. "I was white as a ghost, my children didn't even really recognize me, they were just crying," Sarah told ABC News.

After she had been released from the hospital, Sarah says, her daughters would still get upset whenever she left the house, thinking she was headed back to the hospital. Sarah's health issues persisted after her discharge from the hospital. She said her immune system had been compromised by her illness and the medicines she had to take because of it.

Sarah's family runs a butcher shop called Freedom Meat Locker, and she's proud of its cleanliness. "We love that our inspector comes in once a week and looks around the whole shop and is thrilled about how clean and beautiful it is," said Sarah. She wondered why the egg producers couldn't maintain the same standard. "If we had the same violations that they did, we would be closed down."