State Laws Vary in Recognizing Harms Suffered by Parents of Children with E. coli-induced HUS
Part of our job as food safety attorneys is to understand and explain the harms and losses – short and long-term – associated with foodborne illness. This means keeping abreast of the medical and scientific literature. But also, and more importantly, it means spending a lot of time with our clients and understanding their specific harms and losses.
Every case and every client is unique and deserves the benefit of a close attorney-client bond.
I recently wrote about the long-term prognosis for people who suffer hemolytic uremic syndrome (HUS) induced by E. coli O157:H7. This is because many people who suffer this devastating illness have life-long and very severe medical problems that show up long after the acute phase of the illness is over.
Many HUS victims are children. Their parents suffer along with them. The fear and uncertainty of loving a child with chronic medical problems is a constant stress that intrudes on the parents and siblings of a child with HUS.
A recent medical journal article supports the notion that the impact of HUS is not limited to the disease survivor. The paper, Emotional and Behavioral Changes in Parents of Children Affected by Hemolytic-Uremic Syndrome Associated With Verocytotoxin-Producing Escherichia Coli: A Qualitative Analysis, concludes:
This [data] demonstrated that intense emotional distress was commonplace at the 1-year follow-up, demonstrating that emotional strain is present long after the acute phase of the child’s illness. The finding that fear of unknown long-term repercussions, relapse, and reinfection were still causing distress and rumination 1 year later suggests that dealing with an infected child is chronic stress…
On a personal note, my wife and I are the parents of 25 year-old young man with a genetic disorder characterized by physical and cognitive challenges. Loving a child with medical issues is one of the most challenging problems faced by parents. It affects virtually every family decision and not a day goes by without its consequences reverberating throughout the home.
Are parents compensated for this emotional stress? From a legal standpoint that depends on the law of the state in which the illness occurred but, sadly, it’s not enough.
Many states only allow recovery for the diseased individual. Some allow recovery, but only in cases in which the parent was in the “zone of danger” (meaning they were at risk for injury as well).
Fewer still recognize the obvious harm and loss that parents suffer when their children face a life of medical problems related to HUS. It’s never right when common sense and the medical literature recognizes a problem for which the law offers little or no remedy.
Steak E. coli O157:H7 Danger Should be Labeled
Here’s the latest press release from my office:
MINNEAPOLIS, January 2010 — National food safety lawyer Fred Pritzker is calling on USDA to require E. coli O157:H7 warning labels on steaks and other beef products that have been mechanically tenderized.
In 1999, the federal agency charged with ensuring the safety of our nation’s meat supply banned E. coli O157:H7 from mechanically tenderized beef ( legally known as non-intact muscle meat) because it poses a public health risk. But special labeling of mechanically manipulated steak was never required.
Studies have shown that piercing the meat with blades, needles or injections of brine drives some surface E. coli into the center of the meat — making it unsafe to eat rare or medium. On intact steaks, surface E. coli readily die at temps hot enough to change the exterior color of the meat. Without warning labels, the vast majority of consumers can’t be sure what type of steak they are buying or whether non-intact cuts pose a threat.
Testing for E. coli at slaughter plants and processing plants catches some of the contamination when it occurs, but the testing protocols are far from foolproof and dangerous outbreaks of E. coli O157:H7 are still occurring.
For instance, National Steak and Poultry on December 24th recalled 248,000 pounds of boneless steak and other beef products. The company said the potentially contaminated meat was sold to three restaurant chains: Moe’s, Carino’s Italian Grill and KRM restaurants in Colorado, Iowa, Kansas, Michigan, South Dakota and Washington.
Those are the same six states where state and federal health officials have identified a cluster of at least 21 E. coli illnesses associated with contaminated blade-tenderized steaks. Another 10 states are believed to be part of the outbreak.
“It is a sad fact of life that meat processors selling adulterated products that harm or kill unsuspecting citizens often do whatever it takes to avoid responsibility for the harms and losses caused by their products,” Pritzker said.
Pritzker said packing plants, processors, restaurants, grocery stores and other purveyors of meat have been doing a great injustice to the public by not identifying steaks and roasts that have been injected or otherwise mechanically tenderized. For the sake of E. coli prevention, the federal government must step in and now require sellers to label their products with appropriate warning.
“Regulation is essentially useless if it doesn’t protect consumers from known hazards,” Pritzker said. “In this case, people have the right to know the steak they are choosing could be laced with a deadly pathogen.”
E. coli O157:H7 grows benignly in the guts of cattle and is spread to meat via fecal contamination during slaughter. When ingested by humans, the bacteria emit a powerful toxin that causes extremely painful and often bloody diarrhea.
In more than five percent of cases, the pathogen can lead to life-threatening diseases and cause permanent injury to health. The highest incidence of illness from E. coli is in children under five years of age. They suffer from hemolytic uremic syndrome (HUS), the leading cause of child kidney failure in the United States.
Fred Pritzker is founder and president of Pritzker Olsen, P.A., one of the few law firms in the nation practicing extensively in the area of foodborne illness litigation. Over the years, the firm has collected tens of millions of dollars for victims of food poisoning. Outbreaks of foodborne disease are preventable and Pritzker Olsen actively supports various measures to reduce the threat of microbiological hazards in our food supply. For more information or to contact Fred, call 1-888-377-8900 (Toll Free), visit our web site or email Fred at fhp@pritzkerlaw.com.
Silence by Health Officials Smacks of Favoritism
In a post that appeared on our web site a week before the USDA-FSIS announced a recall of contaminated beef produced by National Steak and Poultry, an Owasso, Oklahoma establishment, we advised of the possibility that blade tenderized steak may be the source of a nationwide E. coli O157:H7 outbreak.
Dr. Doug Powell, creator of the excellent food safety platform Barfblog, acknowledged our leadership in a recent post: “Minnesota lawyer Fred Pritzker was the first to publicly identify the potential outbreak linked to blade-tenderized steaks a week ago.”
The problem is that the official recall notice issued by USDA-FSIS on Christmas Eve is essentially useless since it fails to identify the restaurants at which the adulterated steak was served. Without that crucial information, the millions of consumers who eat steak at U.S. restaurants are left with no practical information about whether they were exposed to adulterated beef.
Our firm has been investigating this outbreak for several weeks and we are aware of at least one nationally advertised restaurant chain that is involved. But it is not possible to know the specific locations or all the restaurants involved in the outbreak without the customary listing provided in outbreaks by public health officials.
This decision smacks of regulators protecting the “good name” of national restaurant chains at the expense of consumer rights. Therefore, our law firm calls upon USDA-FSIS and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (which has remained silent on this outbreak) to promptly inform the American public of all the names of all the restaurants at which this recalled beef was served.
Restaurants are liable for E. coli infections caused by the food they serve. In this case, the restaurants associated with the illnesses are liable along with the steak processor for the harm suffered by those sickened.
If you have information about this outbreak or question whether the E. coli illness of a loved one may be linked, call Pritzker Olsen at 1-888-377-8900 (Toll Free) or complete our online contact and information form on the side of this web page.
E. coli Outbreaks And The Year In Food Poisoning
MINNEAPOLIS (Business Wire) Dec. 22, 2009 — Dramatic outbreaks of food poisoning filled the first half of 2009, highlighted by 9 deaths from peanuts contaminated with Salmonella and then by a nationwide outbreak of E. coli O157:H7 in Nestle Toll House refrigerated cookie dough.
Less visible but just as menacing throughout the year was the drum beat of human infection caused by E. coli O157:H7 in ground beef. According to a review of federal records by national food safety law firm Pritzker Olsen Attorneys, more than 1 million pounds of ground beef and beef cuts intended for grinding were recalled from market this year by USDA-inspected slaughter plants and processors. The largest of the 15 recalls covered 545,699 pounds of ground beef produced this fall by Fairbank Farms of Ashville, N.Y. It was associated with two deaths and 19 hospitalizations.
Multi-state E. coli outbreaks associated with these recalls killed at least three people all together and sickened at least 80, according to the records. The outbreaks resulted in at least 34 hospitalizations and eight confirmed cases of life-threatening hemolytic uremic syndrome (HUS), a disease especially dangerous to children that causes kidney failure and many other serious health conditions.
Since January 2007, the industry has initiated at least 52 recalls of beef tainted with E. coli O157:H7 compared with 20 in the three previous years, according to the New York Times.
“This data points to the need for sweeping change in the way food safety is regulated in this country,” said Fred Pritzker, founder and president of PritzkerOlsen. “While I agree we cannot ‘test’ our way out of this situation, the current regulatory schemes incentivize producers not to test their product. This is wrong and dangerous and needs to changed.”
The U.S. House in late July approved food safety legislation that would give sweeping new authority to the Food and Drug Administration. If a similar bill is passed by the Senate next year, President Obama would approve the first major changes to food-safety laws in 70 years. Judging from the food poisoning record of 2009, the changes are desperately needed.
The Salmonella Typhimurium outbreak caused by the now-defunct Peanut Corp. of America sprouted in late 2008, but it spilled over into 2009 with a cascading list of product recalls and burgeoning reports of people who had become seriously ill.
On April 29, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) issued its final report on the outbreak: Nine deaths, 714 confirmed illnesses in 46 states and more than 170 people hospitalized. Because Peanut Corp. was an indirect supplier of peanuts to all different kinds of food makers, the CDC estimated that more than 2,833 peanut-containing products may have been made with the ingredients, prompting a numbing quantity of food recalls that ranged from ice cream to pet food to sandwich crackers.
Pritzker Olsen is representing the families of three people who died in the outbreak and client Jeffrey Almer provided moving testimony on Feb. 11 to members of Congress. Contaminated peanut butter killed his mother, Shirley Mae Almer of Minnesota, after she had twice defeated cancer.
Just as the shock of contaminated peanut butter was wearing off, Americans learned that dangerous microbes were harboring in cookie dough. E. coli O157:H7 was not previously associated with raw, refrigerated cookie dough. But by mid-summer, 76 people in 31 states were confirmed victims of an E. coli outbreak traced to Nestle Toll House products made in Danville, Virginia. Despite an exhaustive investigation and temporary shutdown of the plant, conclusions could not be made with regard to the root cause of contamination. But, according to the CDC, the outbreak caused 35 hospitalizations and 11 confirmed cases of HUS.
Overlapping the cookie dough outbreak was a more familiar outbreak of E. coli O157:H7 caused by ground beef. At least 24 people from nine states were infected by the same strain of E. coli that Michigan public health investigators found in ground beef produced by JBS Swift Beef Co. There was an initial recall of 41,280 pounds, but it was soon widened to include 380,000 pounds of the product.
A smaller ground beef E. coli outbreak killed a 7-year-old Cleveland girl. Ohio health investigators associated her death with contaminated ground beef from Valley Meats LLC of Coal Valley, Ill., which recalled 95,898 pounds of potentially tainted hamburger meat in May that had been delivered to restaurants.
Two Salmonella outbreaks in 2009 were associated with ground beef produced by Beef Packers Inc., of Fresno, Calif. In August, the plant recalled 400 tons of ground beef, followed in early December by a recall of 22,723 pounds of hamburger products distributed by Safeway food stores in Arizona and Gallup, N.M.
Beyond the raw numbers of recalls and outbreaks, the New York Times showed in a remarkable story published October 3 why eating ground beef is still a gamble. The story, which should win a Pulitzer Prize for reporter Michael Moss, proved that neither the system meant to make the meat safe, nor the meat itself, is what consumers have been led to believe. Moss traced how food giant Cargill used low-grade ingredients and minimal testing protocols to make a hamburger that inadvertently paralyzed a 22-year-old children’s dance instructor. The dancer’s E. coli infection is the kind of nightmare that might wake people up.
Fred Pritzker is founder and president of Pritzker Olsen, P.A., one of the few law firms in the United States that practices extensively in the area of foodborne illness litigation. The firm has collected millions of dollars on behalf of victims of food poisoning. Pritzker Olsen has offices at Plaza VII, Suite 2950, 45 South Seventh Street, Minneapolis, Minnesota 55402. For more information or to contact Fred call 1-888-377-8900 (Toll Free) or email fhp@pritzkerlaw.com.
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Restaurants Need Prevention Training to Curtail Risk of Steak E. coli Outbreaks
An investigation by national food safety law firm Pritzker Olsen into a possible beef steak E. coli outbreak associated with at least one national restaurant chain raises the issue once again of bacterial contamination in non-intact cuts of beef.
There are preliminary indications that the current restaurant steak E. coli outbreak — which may have peaked in November — involves meat injected with tenderizing ingredients, which would classify them as non-intact. Between 1999 and 2003, five of six steak E. coli outbreaks associated with non-intact beef involved moisture-enhanced steaks, according to a 2003 study at Colorado State University.
Injections and mechanical blade tenderizing techniques may enhance flavor of a steak, but it can be dangerous to consumers when brine is contaminated and when meat isn’t cooked well. That is why in 1999 the federal government lumped non-intact beef together with hamburger, meaning they are considered adulterated if they carry E. coli O157:H7 — a virulent pathogen that can cause hemolytic uremic syndrome (HUS) and thrombotic thrombocytopenic purpura (TTP)
The risks associated with non-intact beef were outlined nicely in a 1996 Masters Thesis by Kansas State University graduate student Sarah Sporing. She noted that many restaurant cooks mistakenly handle injected and blade-tenderized steaks as whole cuts that can be served rare or medium rare. When cooking whole cuts, surface contamination can be killed merely by cooking the meat until it changes color.
They often don’t realize that injections translocate surface E. coli into the muscle, where it can survive if the center is undercooked. Sporing’s study showed that a standard food industry blade tenderizer transferred 3- to 4 percent of surface E. coli to the center of the meat. Injections of cross-contaminated flavoring can do the same thing.
Sporing studied the thermal destruction of bacteria in the center of E. coli steaks and found that oven broiling was more effective (shorter cooking time) at killing the pathogens than grilling the meat on a commercial gas grill or cooking it in an electric skillet. But regardless of the cooking method, she determined that the population of E. coli O157:H7 in non-intact steak could be reduced to the same safety level as intact beef if cooked to at least 140 degrees.
“To reduce risks… it is in the best interest of the meat and food service industries to encourage the use of thermometers to determine degree of doneness in all meat products,” not just ground beef, Sporing wrote.
E. coli lawyers at Pritzker Olson have been contacted by survivors of this non-intact steak E. coli outbreak. If you believe you or a loved one have suffered damages from this potential outbreak or know anything about it, please contact us at 1-888-377-8900 (Toll Free) or complete our online contact and information form on the side of this web page.
Our firm is one of the few in the country that practices extensively in the area of foodborne illness litigation. We have the resources and experience to collect compensation from the parties responsible for this outbreak, including meat suppliers and restaurant corporations. If you contact us, we will provide a free case consultation. If we agree to take your case, you owe us nothing until you win.
This outbreak could have been prevented and our firm actively supports a variety of initiatives to strengthen the food safety system in America, which hasn’t undergone broad, meaningful change in 70 years. One of our clients testified this year before a Congressional food safety panel in Washington, D.C., and another client is featured in the current issue of Consumer Reports magazine that exposes widespread bacterial hazards in poultry.
Fred Pritzker On Newsmakers
