Marler Blog : Food Poisoning Lawyer & Attorney : Bill Marler : Marler Clark

Today we amended our complaint on behalf of “Daniel Krim, 49, [who] became ill after eating alfalfa sprouts on a turkey sandwich he purchased from a La Vista restaurant in late February. His flu-like symptoms worsened, forcing him to go to the emergency room at Midlands Hospital in Papillion. Days later, his doctor confirmed he had been infected with the Salmonella St. Paul strain, according to his lawsuit, filed last week in Sarpy County District Court.”

According to Leia Baez of the Omaha World-Herald, “Krim is suing CW Sprouts, Inc., whose SunSprouts products were linked to the outbreak in Nebraska, Iowa, Kansas, Colorado and South Dakota. He also is suing Caudill Seed and Warehouse Co. of Louisville, Ky., the company that manufactured and sold alfalfa sprout seeds to CW Sprouts."

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Knox Times-Tribune staff writer Heather Cole wrote, “the death of a Knox County woman is under investigation and E. coli O157:H7 bacteria is believed to be the source of her illness. Vickie Shelton, 47, died Monday afternoon at Central Baptist Hospital in Lexington after being admitted.” She also wrote “officials at the U.S. Department of Heath in Fayette County are testing samples of ground beef Shelton had reportedly consumed prior to becoming sick. American Foods Group (AFG) of Green Bay, Wisconsin issued the recall on products produced in October and reportedly shipped to retailers and distributors in seven states including Kentucky, Indiana, Maryland, Ohio, Tennessee, Wisconsin and Virginia. The recall, issued November 24, is a class 1 recall with health risks listed as “high.” The problem was discovered through an investigation into two illnesses that was initiated by the Illinois Department of Public Health.

As I wrote in a previous blog post:

We have seen this all before. In December 1998, a recall was issued for 1,000 pounds of beef manufactured by AFG and distributed to Cub Foods stores in the Chicago, Illinois area after random testing showed that meat in one of the stores was contaminated with E. coli O157:H7. In December 1999, a recall of ground beef was made after government inspectors found contamination at the AFG plant. In December 2000, the Minnesota Department of Health (MDH) issued a press release stating that 17 Minnesota citizens had been infected with the same strain of the E. coli O157:H7 bacteria during November 2000. On December 4, FSIS, stated in a Class I alert that Green Bay Dressed Beef, the meat supplier doing business as AFG, was, at the suggestion of the FSIS, recalling 1.1 million pounds of contaminated ground beef. Yet another recall, this time for over 500,000 pounds of ground beef manufactured by AFG, occurred in August 2001.

I am beginning to loose track of how many illnesses have been caused by E. coli-contaminated hamburger this year (must be well over 1,000 officially reported) and how much meat has been recalled this year (must be in excess of 32,000,000 pounds).  And, "we have the safest food in the world?"  I say, Bull#%^*!

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William Marler, a Seattle attorney who represents children throughout the United States poisoned by E. coli, speaks out on Ohio and Kentucky E. coli cases tied to Kentucky Fried Chicken Coleslaw.

"Nearly everyday I hear about another case of E. coli, Salmonella or Lysteria tied to some food product. However, I have never seen a situation where the same product injures different people who ate at the same restaurant chain one year apart -- usually a company learns from past mistakes," said attorney William Marler of Marler Clark. According to reports by the Omaha World-Herald in March 1999, KFC was implicated in 27 confirmed E. coli illnesses stemming from coleslaw at a Greenwood, Indiana restaurant in May 1998.

At that time, the Indiana Health Department found:

• The cabbage was packaged in net bags, which could have allowed for contamination during shipment.
• Food handlers at the restaurant did not wash the cabbage before shredding despite noticing that it was of poor quality and heavily soiled when it arrived. This probably allowed the E. coli organism to be introduced into the coleslaw.
• The restaurant with the illnesses quickly changes its coleslaw preparation practices to include the use of pre-washed and pre-shredded cabbage rather than whole cabbage.

"It is frankly shocking that KFC did not move faster to assure its customers that lightening, in the form of E. coli, would not strike twice. I think the Ohio and Kentucky Health Departments should look very hard at pressing charges against KFC," added Marler.

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