Ill Restaurant Worker Causes E. coli Outbreak in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula at Christmas
With an ill restaurant worker causing an E. coli O157:H7 outbreak in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula, in Houghton, questions arise about regulations concerning training, management and responsibility for eliminating the risky practice of sending a contagious person into work in any food establishment.
E. coli lawyer Fred Pritzker is investigating The Ambassador restaurant E. coli outbreak that sickened at least seven people, including four who were hospitalized. The infected customers ate at the restaurant around Christmas. Others who became ill with diarrhea after eating at the restaurant are encouraged to report their experience to an attorney or the Western Upper Peninsula Health Department.
E. coli O157:H7, the pathogen transmitted by the restaurant worker, is a potentially deadly bacterium that causes hemolytic uremic syndrome (HUS) or thrombotic thrombocytopenic purpura (TTP). Both of these diseases shut down a person’s kidneys and can lead to other severe illness, including strokes, anemia, heart attack and paralysis.
A study on file with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) shows that transmission of pathogens from food workers to the food they handle is implicated as a contributing factor in approximately 20 percent of foodborne illness outbreaks. The study authors interviewed food workers in nine states and found that 12 percent of them had worked while suffering from vomiting or diarrhea on two or more shifts in the previous year. Factors associated with workers having worked while experiencing vomiting or diarrhea were:
- High volume of meals served.
- Lack of policies requiring workers to report illness to managers.
- Lack of on-call workers.
- Lack of manager experience.
The findings of this study and others suggest that policies that encourage workers to tell managers when they are ill can help mitigate pressures to work.
Regulations vary with jurisdictions, but it is the responsibility of restaurant owners to train staff members to stay away from work while they are sick. In cases where the workers are confirmed to be infected with E. coli, Salmonella, Shigella or Hepatitis A, they should be tested by a health care provider before they are cleared to return to work.
Any Ambassador E. coli lawsuit stemming from this outbreak will examine what policies were in place at the restaurant and whether reporting mandates from the local or state health departments were followed.
If you or a loved on was sickened in this outbreak, call Mr. Pritzker at 1-888-377-8900 or leave your contact information and he or another attorney from the firm will call you. The law firm he founded, Pritzker Olsen Attorneys, is one of the very few legal groups in the country practicing extensively in the area of foodborne illness litigation. We have collected millions for victims of restaurant outbreaks and have represented Michigan and Wisconsin clients in numerous cases. Our law firm does not charge its clients until a claim is won for them.
2-Year-Old Hunter Tallent is the Face of E. coli in NC
The State Fair E. coli outbreak in North Carolina is not a nameless, faceless medical emergency. A 2-year-old boy from Shelby, North Carolina, is fighting for his life as he receives dialysis treatments and blood transfusions at Levine Children’s Hospital in Charlotte.
The boy’s name is Hunter Tallent. A story in the local newspaper explains how he was diagnosed with E. coli poisoning after a family trip to the North Carolina State Fair in Raleigh. As of Tuesday, Hunter still had no kidney function after more than a week of treatments. The family learned October 24 that Hunter was infected with E. coli poisoning and had developed a life-threatening complication known as hemolytic uremic syndrome, or HUS, that is most common in children under the age of 5.
“They immediately said he’s got to go, his kidneys are failing,” mother Lindsay Tallent told The Shelby Star newspaper. “My heart hit the floor. We thought maybe he got dehydrated…needed a few bags of fluid and would be home in a couple of hours.”
The young boy contracted the illness at the N.C. State Fair in Raleigh, which public health investigators have linked to the outbreak. About two dozen people have been confirmed as victims, including Hunter. Scientists are still trying to determine whether the outbreak was caused by contaminated food or an animal exhibit.
Community support from the people in Cleveland County has been a real lift, spiritually, for Hunter and his family.
“We’re just having to wait and watch and hope and pray,” his mother said.
Source: Shelby Star
Schnucks Pulls Items in Cooperation with County Investigation into St. Louis Area E. coli Outbreak
Schnucks Markets and others in the food service industry are working closely with the St. Louis County Department of Health as part of a public health investigation into a foodborne outbreak of shiga toxin-producing E. coli. No source has been announced, but health department officials today confirmed that 14 cases have been reported so far this week throughout the area, from Florissant to South County.
Six of the case patients have been hospitalized and treated at Mercy Medical Center in Creve Coeur, a county health department spokesman said.
A spokeswoman for Schnucks told a news reporter that the grocery store chain has pulled some items from its salad bar, but only out of an abundance of caution and not because they were required to do so. Lettuce and strawberries were among the pulled items, the Schnucks spokeswoman she said.
No recalls have been announced in connection with this outbreak but the county health director, Dr. Dolores J. Gunn, is continuing to urge parents to bring any child who has bloody diarrhea to a hospital emergency room for treatment and testing. Children under age 5 are most susceptible to a life-threatening complication of E. coli infection known as hemolytic uremic syndrome, or HUS E. coli, but the disease also can strike healthy adults.
An E. coli lawyer at Pritzker Olsen Attorneys has been assigned to investigate the St. Louis County outbreak as part of the firm’s response on the side of victims. Our law firm has collected millions of dollars for E. coli patients in outbreaks where the bacteria was traced back to a food product, restaurant or food store. Free case consultations are available at 1-888-377-8900 (Toll Free) or leave your contact information online and an attorney will call you.
Nine Child HUS Cases in same Pennylvania Region
HUS or hemolytic uremic syndrome has struck nine children living in the region around Hershey Medical Center in Pennsylvania and the majority of them swam in the lake at Cowan’s Gap park before getting sick from E. coli.
That’s the word from Hershey Medical Center spokesman Scott Gilbert, who told about the unusually high number of HUS cases in children in an interview with Jim Tuttle of Public Opinion in Chambersburg, Pennsylvania. Three children with HUS are currently being treated at the medical center, including one who swam at Cowan’s Gap, Gilbert said.
In the Cowan’s Gap E. coli investigation, 15 people who swam in the lake during July have been identified as case patients. The park’s swimming facility has been closed and will not reopen this season, but a boil water advisory there has been lifted. People have returned to camping, fishing and using the park, but not in great numbers.
Christine Cronkright, Pennsylvania Department of Health, said the source of contamination has not been determined. “We can tell you that all of the tests that Department of Health conducted for E. coli 0157 at the lake came back negative,” she wrote in an e-mail to Public Opinion.
State and local E. coli investigators continue to look for the cause of this outbreak, which could possibly result in HUS litigation if a scientific explanation can be found. Pritzker Olsen Attorneys, a leading E. coli law firm representing outbreak victims, also is investigating and accepting clients who are deserving of answers. Compensation would be due to them if the bacterial source is the result of negligence. Free E. coli case consultations are available by submitting contact information online or calling a lawyer at the firm’s main line 1-888-377-8900 (Toll Free).
HUS in Children When E. coli 026 is the Cause
Hemolytic Uremic Syndrome (HUS) in children is mostly commonly derived from an infection of E. coli O157:H7 and nothing in science that we know of has refuted that. Children under 5 years of age are most susceptible to E. coli HUS, which almost always leads to kidney failure but has many other serious health risks — including brain, heart and central nervous system injuries.
Our HUS law firm is a leading, nationally recognized legal group for families whose loved ones have contracted foodborne infections of Shiga Toxin-producing E. coli such as E. coli O157:H7 that lead to HUS and thrombotic thrombocytopenic purpura (TTP). That is why a recent study in Scotland caught our attention.
The study by health officials in that country illustrates the potential for increased severity of HUS from E. coli O26 infection in children. “We suggest that infection with E. coli O26 in children can result in more severe and complicated forms of HUS than those caused by E. coli O157.” In contrast to another European study, the Scots found that there was a significant difference in neurologic complications between the two groups.
Although initial signs and symptoms were similar for both sets of cases — bloody diarrhea and abdominal pain — statistical analysis showed that children with O26-HUS were more likely to have neurologic complications and diabetes and require admission to the intensive care unit than O157-HUS patients.
Also, O26-HUS patients had significantly longer periods of anuria than O157-HUS patients and were more likely to require treatment with hemofiltration than with hemodialysis. One patient with O26-HUS also experienced serious heart injury: cardiomyopathy resulting in reduced left ventricular function.
“Our study was limited by the small number of patients with pediatric O26-HUS. However, given the severity of the complications experienced by the children in this cohort, we believe it is necessary to communicate these findings promptly to the international community,” the study authors wrote in findings republished this month by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
Outbreaks of foodpoisoning that result in HUS from any type of E. coli result in burdensome medical expenses, lost time from work, travel and daycare expenses, future earnings loss, future medical problems and pain and suffering. To hold purveyors of contaminated food accountable for the harms they cause, E. coli HUS lawsuits often are necessary and beneficial to the cause of food safety.The courts provide an effective check-and-balance system — sending a message that real-life penalties for negligence go beyond civil fines that regulators can impose. For free HUS case consultations, call 1-888-377-8900 (Toll Free) or submit contact information online and a lawyer will respond to you directly.
