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San Carlos Woman Files Lawsuit in Nestle Cookie Dough Food Poisoning

Even as Nestle announced a nationwide recall of its Toll House cookie dough because of fears of E. coli contamination, a San Carlos woman has filed a lawsuit against the company after she contracted the infection, and was hospitalized for a week.

18-year-old Jillian Collins was hospitalized at Stanford Medical Center after she contracted the potentially fatal infection. Collins is one of the approximately 70 people across 30 states who have fallen sick after eating the tainted cookie dough. So far, none of the illnesses have resulted in deaths. Collins’ lawsuit has been filed in the San Mateo County Superior Court. According to Collins, she purchased the cookie dough at a Safeway store in Belmont, and ate “between a quarter to a half of the raw cookie dough”. A couple of days later, she began to suffer from nausea and abdominal cramps. She was admitted to the Palo Alto Medical Foundation by which time she had began to suffer from bloody diarrhea. A biopsy confirmed the presence of E.coli. She was released after being treated at the Sanford Medical Center for a week.

It’s still not clear how the Toll House refrigerated and prepackaged cookie dough was contaminated with the deadly E.coli Bacteria. The recall included cookie and brownie dough bars, cookie dough tubs and tubes. In all, about 300,000 cases of the Toll House cookie dough products have been included in the recall. At least two cases of tainted dough have been reported from California, besides cases from 29 other states.

Most E.coli strains are harmless, but the deadliest one can cause severe food poisoning in humans. Symptoms of this deadly infection include abdominal cramps and bloody diarrhea. After a while, kidney failure can set in, and a person can die. Children and adults with weakened immune systems are more susceptible to E.coli infections. Transmission is by fecal matter, passed on through infected foods. E. coli poisoning can be largely prevented by the safe handling of foods. Unpasteurized milk, raw eggs, unwashed food and vegetables and uncooked meats can serve as means of transmission. To avoid infection, cook meats well, wash vegetables thoroughly before eating and avoid unpasteurized milk.

In severe cases of E.coli poisoning, patients may develop a serious infection called Hemolytic Uremia Syndrome (HUS). Symptoms include decreased frequency of urination and tiredness. The kidneys may begin to stop functioning, and there may be permanent kidney damage. These E.coli bacteria tend to live in the intestines of cattle and goats. These are also the E.coli bacteria that are most often traced to E.coli poisoning in humans. That is why food safety experts have still not been able to trace how this bacterium that normally lives in the intestine of cattle, found its way into the cookie dough.

The cookie dough recall comes after a series of food poisoning crises linked to contaminated peanuts and pistachios. Earlier this year, contaminated peanut butter set off a salmonella food poisoning crises that left several dead, and hundreds of people hospitalized with severe salmonellosis. Food safety is top of the agenda for the new Food and Drug Administration chief who has promised it will tackle the problem on a war footing.

The Reeves Law Group is a law firm with offices throughout California dedicated exclusively to the representation of personal injury victims, including victims of recalled products. Please visit our website at trlglaw.com. If you desire a free consultation on a personal injury matter, please call us at (800) 644-8000 or email us.

The Reeves Law Group is not acting as legal counsel for any party in the matters discussed in this posting.

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