Marler Clark is currently investigating the deaths of two more people, one elderly woman from the Baltimore, Maryland, area, and one child from Ohio, who are believed to have been victims of the spinach E. coli outbreak. The families of the deceased contacted the firm earlier this week, asking for assistance in their search for the cause of their family members’ illnesses and deaths. In the days prior to their illnesses, both victims had consumed spinach that was subject to the recently announced spinach recall involving Natural Selection Foods, and many of the brands that it sold to. Both victims struggled in the hospital with kidney failure for close to two weeks before they passed. The young child from Ohio who died had siblings and cousins with severe illness as well, several of whom tested positive for E. coli O157:H7.
Tragic. That’s the only word that comes to mind after seeing all the devastation that this outbreak has caused. In addition to the deaths in Ohio and Maryland that we are investigating, the deaths of an elderly Wisconsin woman and a small Idaho child have been reported as conclusively linked to E. coli illnesses and HUS caused by consumption of E. coli-contaminated spinach. I represent twelve people who developed HUS – some of whom are still on dialysis.
Families are suffering over this, and I fear that more deaths will be linked to the outbreak before the crisis is over. That’s to say nothing of the people who will have life-long kidney problems as a result of their illnesses.