Subway Lawsuit to be Filed by Pritzker Olsen
The following press release will go out today from our office. This represents our second lawsuit against Subway this year in Illinois.
For Immediate Release
MINNEAPOLIS (Business Wire) — Food safety law firm Pritzker Olsen is preparing to file a lawsuit on behalf of a woman from central Illinois who was hospitalized in the Subway Salmonella Hvittingfoss outbreak.
The 52-year-old resident of Tazewell County is one of at least 97 people who have tested positive for the same strain of Salmonella in an outbreak linked to more than 40 Subway locations in 28 Illinois counties. Pritzker Olsen is in contact with other victims.
Attorney Fred Pritzker said the client ate an oven-roasted chicken sub on May 11 at the Subway on 603 Jackson Street in Morton, Illinois. She was hospitalized for several days after suffering gastroenteritis and cramping with severe vomiting.
“Our client ate a sandwich and ended up in the hospital. This should never happen in our country,” Pritzker said. “Stringent sanitation requirements should be in place all along the food chain, and federal and state health officials should be given the authority and money needed to enforce the laws. Large restaurant chains should require suppliers to regularly test for Salmonella and other dangerous pathogens.”
Pritzker Olsen is also representing victims of a shigellosis outbreak associated with the Subway restaurant in Lombard, Illinois. The firm filed a lawsuit in March of this year on behalf of one of the victims, a resident of DuPage County, Illinois, who battled a severe Shigella infection for two weeks. The Subway lawsuit alleges that the outbreak was caused by sick food handlers at the restaurant.
Although contaminated food was the source of this current outbreak linked to certain Subway restaurants in Illinois, health officials are concerned that sick food handlers may continue to spread Salmonella Hvittingfoss. To prevent this, the Illinois Department of Public Health is requiring food handlers in 46 Subway restaurants to have two consecutive test results that are negative for Salmonella Hvittingfoss before being allowed to return to work.
For more information, visit http://www.pritzkerlaw.com or contact Pritzker Olsen law firm at 1-800-377-8900 (Toll Free). Pritzker Olsen offices are located at Plaza VII, Suite 2950, 45 South Seventh Street, Minneapolis, Minnesota 55402.
Encouraging Consumers to Hold Restaurants Accountable For Food Poisoning
Already this year we’ve seen two serious outbreaks of foodborne illness at restaurants, including a Subway Shigella outbreak in Lombard, Illinois, where we are representing many of the victims. Here’s a press release from our office reminding consumers of the strict liability that restaurants face for the good of public health.
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
MINNEAPOLIS — April 10, 2010 — National food safety law firm Pritzker Olsen is reminding consumers that restaurants are liable for any injuries resulting from consumption of the food served to customers.
A pair of recent outbreaks involving E. coli O157:H7 and Shigella have highlighted the issue by making people seriously ill in areas around Honolulu, Hawaii, and Lombard, Illinois. Pritzker Olsen, a leading practitioner of foodborne illness litigation, is monitoring both outbreaks and has filed an Illinois Shigella lawsuit against the Subway restaurant at 1009 E. Roosevelt Road in Lombard.
In the Subway outbreak, health officials have associated improper hygiene by infected food handlers with an outbreak of shigellosis that has sickened at least 78 people, including at least 11 who were hospitalized. Pritzker Olsen is representing many of the victims in the Subway outbreak and continues to accept cases.
In Honolulu, state health department investigators recently closed Peppa’s II Korean BBQ restaurant on South King Street for one day as part of an investigation into an E. coli O157:H7 outbreak. Four of seven people sickened by the same strain of E. coli O157:H7 reported eating at Peppa’s before they became ill in March. Health investigators then observed improper food handling at the restaurant and closed it for one day for cleaning and training in E. coli prevention.
Anyone who contracts E. coli poisoning at a restaurant is entitled to damages from the restaurant. This is the case even when the specific food source is not determined by health investigators or when the restaurant unknowingly accepts food already contaminated with E. coli and serves it. Restaurants are an important filter in the U.S. food safety system, demanding food from hand-picked suppliers that is wholesome and unadulterated.
Pritzker Olsen represents E. coli HUS, Shigella, Salmonella, Listeria and other food poisoning victims throughout the U.S., including Hawaii.
In a recent case in Moultrie, Georgia, our lawyers filed suit against The Barbecue Pit, Inc. restaurant, Nebraska Beef, Ltd. and H & L Distributors on behalf of a woman who contracted an E. coli infection after eating contaminated beef later recalled by Nebraska Beef.
Our client suffered bloody diarrhea with intense and painful stomach cramping. Shortly after she was hospitalized, she began suffering from TTP-HUS, a complication of an E. coli O157:H7 infection that causes kidney failure and can affect other organs such as the brain and the heart. Our client was hospitalized for two months and almost died several times. Following her hospitalization, she was transferred to an inpatient rehabilitation unit at the hospital for approximately two weeks. She required several more hospitalizations in the following months.
As a result of this incident, our client sustained severe and permanent injuries involving her brain, heart, kidneys and other organs and bodily functions.
Food poisoning of any kind is not to be taken lightly. For gastrointestinal symptoms such as painful cramping, diarrhea, fever, nausea and vomitting, see a physician immediately. It most cases, a doctor’s offhand diagnosis that your symptoms are “food related” is not enough for legal purposes. It is critically important that your doctor runs the appropriate stool or blood test to determine the particular type of food poisoning you suffered.
Restaurant outbreaks of foodborne illness are preventable and often stem from lax training in safe food handling and preparation. When restaurant owners are held accountable for making people sick, our food safety system is strengthened for the good of everyone.
For more information, contact Pritzker Olsen at 1-888-377-8900 (TOLL FREE) or 612-338-0202, email Fred at fhp@pritzkerlaw.com or visit our website, www.pritzkerlaw.com. The firm represents food poisoning victims nationwide and has offices at Plaza VII, Suite 2950, 45 South Seventh Street, Minneapolis, MN 55401.
Lombard, Ill., Subway Sued Over Shigella Outbreak
This press release went out from our office regarding a lawsuit we filed in Illinois on behalf of Patricia Larsen, who is suffering from a Shigella infection (shigellosis) linked to a veggie sandwich she ate at the Lombard, Illinois, Subway restaurant. More suits are pending from our office and we have heard from more than 50 victims of this outbreak.
MINNEAPOLIS, March 21 – (Business Wire) Pritzker Olsen law firm has filed a lawsuit against Neel Subway, Inc., owner of the Subway restaurant located at 1009 East Roosevelt Road in Lombard, Illinois, on behalf of a resident of DuPage County, Illinois, who battled a severe Shigella infection after eating at the Lombard Subway.
The law firm also represents several other people who contracted shigellosis after eating at the Lombard Subway, and we are preparing to file additional lawsuits in the near future.
According to the complaint filed March 18, 2010, in the Circuit Court of DuPage County, Patricia Larsen ate a veggie sandwich from the Lombard Subway on February 26. The next morning, she was overwhelmed by severe diarrhea, stomach cramps, chills, fever and other symptoms. Her condition deteriorated over the next several days, prompting her to see a doctor on March 3. Results of a stool culture came back positive for Shigella sonnei.
The lawsuit states that Ms. Larsen, who could not eat food for several days, missed nearly two weeks of work.
Certain food handlers at the restaurant tested positive for Shigella, according to the complaint. If a food handler infected with Shigella does not wash his or her hands adequately, contaminated human waste can get on food served to patrons, which will make them sick.
“Our client has suffered and will continue to suffer great pain due to an elementary collapse of food safety measures,” said Fred Pritzker, founder and president of Pritzker Olsen. “It’s sad that so many people were seriously sickened by a disgusting and preventable adulteration of food.”
The lawsuit alleges that Subway failed to adequately maintain or monitor the sanitary conditions of its food, drink, water, premises and employees. The restaurant also allegedly failed to ensure its workers were properly trained in safe food handling methods and to design or implement a sick-leave policy that would encourage or cause employees to not work while sick, according to the suit.
Pritzker Olsen is a nationally recognized food safety law firm that has represented victims in practically every major outbreak of food poisoning in the U.S. The firm has collected millions for victims of Shigella and other foodborne outbreaks.
For more information, contact Fred Pritzker at 1-888-377-8900 (TOLL FREE) or 612-338-0202, email Fred at fhp@pritzkerlaw.com or visit our website, www.pritzkerlaw.com. The firm represents food poisoning victims nationwide and has offices at Plaza VII, Suite 2950, 45 South Seventh Street, Minneapolis, MN 55401.
Fred Pritzker On Newsmakers
