Food Poisoning Law Blog : Food Poisoning Lawyer & Attorney : PritzkerLaw : Food Safety, Outbreaks & Recalls

The health department in Raleigh, North Carolina, is investigating seven confirmed cases of E. coli infection in Wake County. The outbreak investigators are trying to determine first of all if the cases are related. If the answer to that is affirmative, health officials will probe for the root cause of the situation.

Two of the people sickened by E. coli were hospitalized in intensive care Tuesday. Two others have been released from the hospital. Severe harm to anyone who was stricken is an indicator of hemolytic uremic syndrome, or HUS. E. coli HUS is a life-threatening complication of toxic E. coli poisoning that involves kidney failure and can mushroom into a series of other extreme complications, including stroke, heart attack, paralysis or extreme anemia.

The North Carolina Division of Public Health is helping to investigate. Six of the case patients have been children and children under age 5 are in the age group most susceptiple to E. coli HUS.

Symptoms of pathogenic E. coli infection include bloody diarrhea and painful abdominal cramps. People who are experiencing these symptoms are encouraged to seek medical treatment. For answers to legal questions, call national food safety law firm PritzkerOlsen, P.A., at 1-888-377-8900 (Toll Free) or leave your contact information and an attorney will call you. Case consultations are free and we don't get paid unless you win 

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Wisconsin E. coli testing for as many as 140 Monroe School District students has begun at Abe Lincoln Elementary School in response to an unexplained outbreak of E. coli O157:H7.

Public health officials are trying to understand if three recent illnesses at Lincoln are of the same exact strain as the one that caused a cluster of E. coli O157:H7 infections, including one child's death, late this summer.

The Green County Health Department and the Wisconsin Division of Public Health have recommended stool testing for all pre-kindergarten and kindergarten students who attend Lincoln. The kits are being distributed through the school nurse's office or the county health department offices and should be returned to the health department by 2 p.m. Monday, October 17, for delivery to the state lab.

Lincoln school has undergone a special cleaning and students and staff have been taught good hand washing techniques. If school children in the area display E. coli symptoms, health officials are recommending they stay home from school and day care facilities over the next few weeks.

Once test results are completed and shared with parents, the next step in the investigation will be to find what food source is responsible for the outbreak.

Families who have legal questions about E. coli compensation in this situation should call food safety law firm PritzkerOlsen, P.A., one of the few legal groups in he country practicing extensively in the area of foodborne illness litigation. This area of law is complicated and Pritzker's E. coli lawyers have years of experience, collecting tens of millions of dollars for E. coli outbreak patients in Wisconsin, Minnesota, Illinois and beyond the Upper Midwest. Free case consultations are available at the firm's offices by calling 1-888-377-8900 (Toll Free), or leave your contact information and one of our attorneys will promptly call you. 

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Abe Lincoln Elementary School in Wisconsin's Monroe School District is the focus of a public health investigation over two child E. coli O157:H7 cases. Investigators want to know if the latest illnesses are associated with a cluster of E. coli O157:H7 cases that occurred elsewhere in the area in August and early September.

Green County Health Department and Wisconsin Division of Public Health are interviewing families to try to identify possible sources of these E. coli infections. Two children have been hospitalized and area health care providers have been alerted to watch for other cases of E. coli in Green County. Pending lab tests will reveal what strain of E. coli is at work in the most recent illnesses and whether it matches, genetically, the previous cluster, which reportedly included the death of a child at UW Madison hospital who contracted E. coli HUS, or hemolytic uremic syndrome.

PritzkerOlsen, P.A., is a national food safety law firm that has won tens of millions of dollars for E. coli victims nationwide. We also are investigating the outbreak in the area around Monroe, Wisconsin. If you believe someone in your family has been infected, see a physician immediately. A free case consultation with PritzkerOlsen is available at 1-888-377-8900 (toll free) or leave your contact information and an experienced E. coli lawyer from our firm will call.

 People who are infected with E. coli are very contagious. The highest incidence of illness from Shiga toxin-producing  E. coli is in children under 5 years of age. Most people infected with E. coli O157:H7 develop diarrhea (often bloody) and abdominal cramps 2-8 days (3-4 days, on average) after swallowing the organism, but some illnesses last longer and are more severe. Infection is usually diagnosed by stool sample culture. E. coli HUS, on average, develops in 5 to 15 percent of case patients. Kidney failure occurs in these instances just as initial symptoms begin to clear. Many other complications can follow and HUS patients can face a lifetime of special medical risks and issues that should be compensated by the parties responsible for allowing the pathogen into our food supply.

Media source: Milwaukee Journal Sentinel  

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In Texas, a  Corpus Christi toddler spent a week in the hospital battling infection from E. coli and Salmonella, the girl's mother told KRIS-TV. The station's report said Nueces County health authorities are investigating a refrigeration problem at a restaurant where the girl had eaten chicken strips.

The restaurant Wings-N-More emptied a deli case where a health inspection found raw chicken strips stored at 68-degrees -- almost 30 degrees above the maximum recommended temperature, KRIS reported.

According to KRIS, the inspector wrote that he "had the manager verify the temperature of the product. At that time he did discard all the product that was in the deli case. He is going to keep the product on ice while he gets the refrigeration company out to get the unit fixed."

The 2-year-old girl's mother said her daughter was placed in isolation at Driscoll Children's Hospital for three days during her hospitalization, which ended this week.

Each year in the United States about 48 million people (1 in 6 Americans) get sick, 128,000 are hospitalized, and 3,000 die each year from foodborne diseases, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Salmonella was the leading cause of estimated hospitalizations and deaths, responsible for about 28 percent of deaths and 35 percent of hospitalizations due to known pathogens transmitted by food. E. coli O157:H7 is one of the seven pathogens that cause 90 percent of all estimated illnesses, hospitalizations and deaths.

Young children, older adults and people whose immune systems are weakened are the most susceptible to severe illness by infection from E. coli and Salmonella. 

National food safety law firm PritzkerOlsen, P.A., represents victims of food poisoning in foodborne illness cases against restaurants, meatpackers and all other food purveyors. Our firm is one of the very few in the country practicing extensively in the area of foodborne illness litigation and we have collected tens of millions of dollars in food poisoning awards for victims around the country. Free case consultations are available by calling 1-888-377-8900 (Toll Free) or by sending contact information for a lawyer to call you at no expense. 

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The E. coli death of a 2-year-old Dryden, Virginia, girl and the hospitalization of her brother are being investigated along with at least six other cases from northeast Tennessee as an outbreak of E. coli O157:H7.

Dr. David Kirschke, medical director of the Northeast Regional Health Office in Johnson City, has told reporters that the cases were discovered in the seven-county area in recent weeks: Greene, Carter, Johnson, Hawkins, Hancock, Washington and Unicoi Counties. No cause has been determined.

Kirschke told the Knoxville News Sentinel newspaper that health officials have been interviewing families stricken by the pathogen about their recent food histories and other possible exposures. He told the newspaper that seven of the eight case patients are infected by the same strain of E. coli. He also said several of the patients ate meat that was not thoroughly cooked.

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Tulsa child E. coli cases have drawn investigators to a church daycare center where three of the four case patients are enrolled for child care. The Tulsa City-County Health Department announced the investigation this week, saying two siblings infected by E. coli have been hospitalized.

All of the children sickened in the outbreak are younger than 10, Health Department spokeswoman Kaitlin Snider said. An agency press release identified the daycare center as located at Boston Avenue United Methodist Church. Health officials said they cannot be certain that the church or its child-care program is the source of the infection, but they are closely investigating that angle. The center has capacity to care for more than 100 children.. 

"The source of E. coli can be challenging to confirm," Health Department Director Bruce Dart stated in a news release. He stressed that there is no indication that this infection is related to the outbreak in Germany that has killed at least 18 people. Nor have health officials drawn any links between what is happening in Tulsa, Oklahoma, and a similar-sized child E. coli outbreak in Amarillo, Texas, where seven young people have been sickened.

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Two children from Tennesse have been treated at Vanderbilt University hospitals in Nashville for serious E. coli infections and the Tennessee Department of Health has been notified of eight E. coli cases statewide so far this year.

State Health Department spokeswoman Shelley L. Walker told the Marshall County Tribune in Lewisburg, Tennessee, that the office has been notified of two E. coli infections in residents of South Central Tennessee, but it was not immediately clear if the two cases were the children treated at Vanderbilt University Medical Center and Vanderbilt Children's Hospital.

"There is no evidence to suggest at this time that there is an ongoing outbreak in that region,'' Walker told the newspaper.

A pharmacist who asked not to be named was the source of the newspaper's information on the two Tennessee child E. coli cases. The father of one of the children called the newspaper to say his daughter was recovering, but declined to say more. The Marshall County newspaper story said health officials conducted food history interviews to investigate any possible common source of the infections.

The pharmacist said one of the children received kidney dialysis treatment, an indicator that she may have suffered from hemolytic uremic syndrome (HUS), a potentially deadly disease caused by powerful Shiga toxins emitted by certain types of E. coli, including E. coli O157:H7.

Children under age 5 are most susceptible to HUS, but it can affect people of any age, including healthy adults. Most people infected with E. coli O157:H7 develop diarrhea (often bloody) and abdominal cramps 2-8 days (3-4 days, on average) after swallowing the organism, but some illnesses last longer and are more severe. Infection is usually diagnosed by stool sample culture.

Signs and symptoms of HUS may include: fever, abdominal pain, pale skin tone, fatigue and irritability, small, unexplained bruises or bleeding from the nose and mouth, decreased urination and swelling of the face, hands, feet, or entire body. Persons who experience these symptoms should seek emergency medical care.

To have an E. coli attorney at PritzkerOlsen, P.A., review your case, please submit a contact form or call our office at 1-888-377-8900 (Toll Free). Our investigators are aware of the Tennessee cases and are monitoring reports of a possible outbreak. PritzkerOlsen is a national leader in foodborne illness law and is one of the very few legal groups practicing extensively in this area. Over the years we have won millions of dollars for victims of food poisoning and we are actively involved in efforts to prevent outbreaks and protect families from contamination of our food supply.

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A Wisconsin petting zoo may be the source of hemolytic uremic syndrome, or HUS, for the 18-month-old daughter of a couple from Lomira, Wisconsin.

The child is battling a life-threatening HUS condition, including full HUS kidney failure, and she is expected to remain hospitalized for several weeks at Children's Hospital of Wisconsin in Milwaukee.

Greg Kottke. the toddler's father, told The Northwestern newspaper from Oshkosh that his family wants all parents to know what can happen with E. coli and the signs to watch out for. HUS develops in five to 15 percent of people who contract shiga toxin-producing E. coli -- mostly E. coli 0157:H7 -- and children under 5 are the most susceptible of any age group.

The newspaper story said the parents believe their daughter is yet another victim of a petting zoo E. coli infection. County fair petting zoos and other animal exhibits present a child HUS risk and operators of these events know the risk and have industry guidelines to follow to prevent infection.

Still, some event managers do not comply fully with HUS prevention standards -- including guidelines from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention -- and tragedies occur.

The daughter of Greg Kottke and Julie Lambrecht developed a low-grade fever about five days after visiting the petting zoo on July 25. When she developed bloody diarrhea, they rushed her to the emergency room at St. Agnes Hospital.

"They couldn't find anything really wrong, so we took her home,'' Kottke said.

The next day they brough her to see her pediatrician and she was admitted to the hospital because she was dehydrated. When her kidneys failed, she was transported to the hospital in Milwaukee.

She remains on dialysis and has been receiving blood transfusions.

"She's a doll, a beautiful little girl, the highlight of my days," Kottke said of his daughter. The family still has hope she will have a full recovery but it is a long waiting game. 

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A leading food safety microbiologist who has studied the topic of lettuce E. coli contamination remains concerned in the wake of the current E. coli O145 lettuce outbreak that bagged, pre-cut produce is riskier than whole vegetables.

In a Washington Post story raising questions about a possible trade off between the convenience of bagged lettuce for consumers and the threat of E. coli, Michael Doyle said he has been avoiding bagged lettuce for years. Doyle directs the Center for Food Safety at the University of Georgia. 

Children are more susceptible to HUS than anyone and the effects can last a lifetime. If you have legal questions about compensation to pay damages for your child's HUS syndrome, contact Pritzker Olsen at 1-888-377-8900 (Toll Free) or complete the contact form on the side of this web page. Besides currently representing an HUS victim from New York who was sickened in this outbreak, we have been leading practitioners for many years in the area of foodborne illness litigation. 

 James Gorny, senior adviser for produce safety at the Food and Drug Administration, said bagged greens represent a disproportionate number of recalls, chiefly because they're easier to identify than whole produce. But he told The Post that pre-cut produce is not inherently riskier than whole vegetables.

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Bonnie and Anthony Wilson of Vancouver, Washington, have bravely shared the story of their 4-year-old son's E. coli death in the hopes of sparing anyone else the same tragedy.

Ronan Allen "Ro-Ro" Wilson was an exhuberant, healthy boy who had overcome serious health challenges in his first few years of life only to fall victim to an outbreak of E. coli O157:H7 at a family daycare. Ronan and others  were sickened before the faciility was shut down. In all, 13 people became infected.

Clark County Health Officer Dr. Alan Melnick  told the Portland Oregonian newspaper that he is certain the outbreak spread inside the daycare from fecal-oral transmission during person to person contact.

He said he and his team made the right  decisions while investigating the outbreak, but he expects to have more discussions with colleagues about whether the state of Washington should retool protocols to be more aggressive in responding to E. coli outbreaks. Ronan's death occurred a mere 10 days after his mother first took him to see a pediatrician on March 29.

According to the story written by reporter Katy Muldoon, here is the sequence of events:

• Despite Mrs. Wilson telling the doctor that a child at Ronan's daycare had been hospitalized with an infection of E. coli O157:H7, the physician said Ronan's symptoms didn't fit that diagnosis and sent him home. 
• At home, the boy's condition appeared to improve the next day, but by evening he felt sick again. When his health worsened on April 1, he went to the clinic and then to the hospital, where he became violently ill. His diarrhea and vomit turned bloody and his stomach became distended.
• Ronan's infection spread fast. By April 4, the infection had moved beyond his colon and kidneys to his brain, damaging his thalmus and causing swelling. Ronan was rendered unconscious and he was breathing with a respirator. The brain infection worsened.
• On the evening of April 8, Ronan died. Friends and family -- including 7-year-old brother Gavin -- had been able to say their good-byes.

One week after Ronan's funeral, the Wilsons told their story:

"They want others to know the loving, curious, ambitious child they lost and to learn from their experience. They don't want another family to ever endure what they did.''

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The U.S. Department of Agriculture has launched an E. coli O157:H7  investigation into the suppliers of ground beef to WinCo Foods, a supermarket chain with stores in California, Idaho, Nevada, Oregon, Washington and Utah.

The probe, assisted by the California Department of Public Health, is in connection with a WinCo hamburger E. coli problem. The company originally recalled ground beef sold from April 3-9 at is Modesto, California, store. An independent lab had found E. coli contamination in two samples of the meat.

Preliminary findings in the WinCo E. coli investigation prompted a widening of the recall to include fresh hamburger with sale dates of March 28-April 9.

USDA spokesman Neil Gaffney told the Modesto Bee newspaper that the agency is investigating the suppliers of the ground beef and attempting to determine how the contamination occurred and the point of contamination.

"We are also trying to determine all potentially infected products," he said.

No confirmed illnesses have yet been reported, but health officials are urging any consumers of recalled WinCo hamburger to immediately see a physician if they have suffered E. coli poisoning symptoms.

For answers to legal questions about an E. coli illness, call national food safety law firm Pritzker Olsen at 1-888-377-8900 (Toll Free) or complete the contact form on the side of this Web page. We represent victims of food poisoning in virtually all major E. coli outbreaks, including families of children who suffer hemolytic uremic syndrome (HUS) or an associated disease in adults known as thrombotic thrombocytopenic purpura ((TTP). 

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Questions are being raised about the public health response to the Fletch Home Daycare E. coli outbreak in Vancouver, Washington, that has tragically claimed the life of a 4-year-old boy.

Clark County Health Officer Dr. Alan Melnick told the Associated Press that officials allowed the state-licensed daycare to continue operating for two weeks after the first child victim was confirmed to have an infection of E. coli O157:H7. The daycare remained open until at least two more children fell sick.

The daycare toddler who died in the outbreak was the fourth to get sick and Melnick isn't saying which day the boy was hospitalized. The home daycare operated by Dianne and Larry Fletch was finally closed April 2. The little boy's E. coli death was reported to authorities seven days later.

Melnick told the AP that he didn't shut down the business until April 2 out of concern that other parents who used the facility could take their children to different day cares and risk exposing others.

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A daycare E. coli outbreak at the Vancouver, Washington, home of Dianne and Larry Fletch has claimed the life of a  4-year-old boy who was first hospitalized March 19.

The tragic death was confirmed by Elizabeth Winter of the Washington State Department of Early Learning and Dr. Alan Melnick, health officer for Clark County.

Larry Fletch, who reportedly has operated the in-home daycare since 1990 with no valid complaints on file, was interviewed by KGW-TV: 

"It really is so horrible,'' he said. "We knew the child since before he was born. We’ve been trying to help the family. It’s just so horrible. We were close to the child. We’re close to all of our children."

Public health officials in Clark County closed the daycare April 2 after four children were hospitalized with matching strains of E. coli O157:H7. Others involved in the daycare later tested positive for E. coli but had not yet exhibited symptoms. 

The cause of the Vancouver daycare E. coli outbreak has not been determined, but the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has stated that daycare centers are the most likely settings for person-to-person outbreaks of E. coli O157:H7. In such cases, the pathogen is spread through fecal-oral contact.

The threat of these outbreaks is why public health officials have stressed the importance of strict hand-washing hygiene. In outbreaks of E. coli, five to 15 percent of people infected by the organism develop life-threatening hemolytic uremic syndrome, HUS. Of all age groups, young children are the most susceptible to contracting HUS, which typically involves kidney failure.

But E. coli HUS is much more than that, often damaging other organs and a person's central nervous system.

National food safety law firm Pritzker Olsen is investigating the Fletch daycare E. coli outbreak and is accepting cases from affected families. Our firm gets involved in practically every major outbreak of E. coli and other foodborne illnesses.

For a free case consultation or to ask legal questions of an E. coli lawyer who has handled many HUS cases, call our firm at 1-888-377-8900 (Toll Free) or complete the contact form on the side of this Web page.

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Washington state health officials have temporarily shut down a Clark County daycare facility after four children in the setting were hospitalized with E. coli O157:H7 infections, including one who remains hospitalized.

The Clark County daycare E. coli outbreak includes two additional cases of illness and the state-licensed daycare center was closed April 2 to prevent more from getting sick. The Portland Oregonian newspaper reported the first details of the outbreak.

Dr. Alan Melnick, Clark County's public health officer, told the newspaper that there was concern of continued person-to-person spreading of the E. coli daycare strain.

He said the health department learned of the first hospitalization on March 19. Soon after, three other children required hospitalization. Melnick told the newspaper that stool samples from 22 children and four adult caregivers showed six carrying the O157:H7 strain but not showing symptoms.

Because symptoms can take up to 10 days to appear after exposure, the health department is checking each day with staff and families of the children and won't reopen the facility until there are no more signs of infection.

Melnick told the Oregonian that one of the infected children remains hospitalized. In five to 15 percent of E. coli infections, patients develop life-threatening E. coli HUS, or hemolytic uremic syndrome. Children are most susceptible to this.

HUS is the leading cause of kidney failure in children, but it also carries many other risks ranging from central nervous system damage to heart problems. Stroke, convulsions, coma, paralysis, brainstem injury are all possible in HUS cases. 

Law firm Pritzker Olsen currently represents HUS E. coli victims from other outbreaks and has years of experience in E. coli  litigation. Our firm is already starting its own investigation of this Clark County daycare E. coli outbreak. We are involved as a representative for victims in practically every major outbreak of foodborne illness in the United States.

To contact us for answers to legal questions about the Washington daycare E. coli outbreak, call 1-888-377-8900 (Toll Free) or complete the contact form on the side of this web page. An experienced E. coli lawyer will provide you with a free case consultation and answer any questions you may have. 

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