Texas Child Food Poisoning Case Triggers Restaurant Health Inspection
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.
