Salmonella Lawsuit Filed Against Cargill
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The national food safety law firm of Simon & Luke, with co-counsel Hare, Wynn, Newell & Newton, will tomorrow morning file the first lawsuit stemming from a nationwide Salmonella Heidelberg outbreak. Health officials have linked the outbreak to contaminated ground turkey produced by Cargill Value Added Meats, a division of Cargill, Inc.
The lawsuit will be filed in the United States District Court in Fayetteville, Arkansas on behalf of 38-year old Arizona resident David Taber. Mr. Taber consumed contaminated ground turkey in early June. A few days later, he began to experience severe vomiting, diarrhea and abdominal pain. After multiple trips to his family physician and a local Urgent Care Center - neither of which produced any improvement in his symptoms - he was rushed to the emergency room at Mercy Gilbert Medical Center on June 12, 2011 via ambulance. Upon arrival, doctors admitted him to the hospital with a diagnosis of acute colitis, but they could not immediately determine the cause of his illness.
On Day 3 of his hospitalization, the answer became clear. Mr. Taber's blood culture came back positive for salmonella. Because the deadly bacteria had already spread to his bloodstream, the infection had become septic and life-threatening. He remained at the hospital for several days, and was eventually discharged home on June 18. He is still recovering from his illness.
The Arizona Department of Health Services Laboratory has since confirmed that Mr. Taber's blood culture tested positive for the outbreak strain of Salmonella Heidelberg, identified by genetic PFGE pattern code JF6X01.0058.
Mr. Taber is one of at least 77 people in 26 states who have contracted the outbreak strain of Salmonella Heidelberg that matched samples taken from ground turkey produced at Cargill's Springdale, Arkansas processing plant. The 77 confirmed victims are distributed throughout the United States as follows: Alabama (1), Arizona (2), California (6), Georgia (1), Iowa (1), Illinois (7), Indiana (1), Kentucky (2), Louisiana (1), Massachusetts (1), Michigan (10), Minnesota (1), Missouri (2), Mississippi (1), North Carolina (1), Nebraska (2), Nevada (1), New York (2), Ohio (10), Oklahoma (1), Oregon (1), Pennsylvania (5), South Dakota (3), Tennessee (2), Texas (9), and Wisconsin (3). One of the victims, a California resident, died as a result of his illness.
Cargill yesterday issued a nationwide recall of 36 million pounds of ground turkey products produced at the plant since February 20.
This is not Cargill's first meat recall. Since 1993 Cargill and its subsidiaries have recalled over 58,000,000 pounds of tainted meat in 10 separate outbreaks, which resulted in at least 323 confirmed illnesses per the attached chart.
Ron Simon, counsel for Mr. Taber, issued the following statement today: "Cargill's unsafe manufacturing practices must be stopped. After putting 58 million pounds of tainted meat on our grocery shelves, which has harmed hundreds of consumers, we intend by this and other lawsuits to affect change in the way that Cargill does business. Cargill's customers deserve better."
