If You Suspect Foodborne Illness, Get a Stool Sample ASAP

Glendale, CALast August Rima and her husband George had dinner at a new Mexican restaurant. That night, George was vomiting and had diarrhea—symptoms of foodborne illness. Unfortunately, George didn't seek medical help and didn't get a stool sample --consequently they have no proof--but Rima believes that food poisoning almost killed him.

When people suffer sickness and diarrhea they often suspect they are suffering from food poisoning--it could be salmonella, e.coli, listeria or another bacteria. However, these symptoms can also result from viral infections, which may be airborne, or some other cause, and may not in fact be food related. If George was able to provide a stool sample for testing, and it proved positive for food poisoning bacteria, an attorney likely would have been able to file a lawsuit. But Rima says that George was not the type of guy to seek medical help…

"The vomiting and diarrhea symptoms lasted 3 days and about one week later George developed flu-like symptoms," says Rima. "He thought it was just some kind of a 'bug'". Rima adds that George, age 54, was very fit and healthy, except for the occasional cold so these symptoms were cause for concern; it got to the point that he had so much chest congestion, Rima drove him to the Urgent Care clinic in Glendale.

"They took a chest x-ray and it showed his heart was enlarged so they recommended we see a cardiologist," says Rima. "This came as such a shock. The cardiologist confirmed his heart was enlarged and prescribed several medications. George was injected with a dye to see what was going on but his blood pressure dropped and he went into heart failure. He was rushed to ER and they did a biopsy from his heart tissue. It showed a lot of white cells around his heart—which indicated a virus. But his arteries were clean: there was no indication of any previous heart disease. I couldn't believe that George was dying."

George did recover, but Rima says it was a long haul. "It is too coincidental that this all started after he got food poisoning. The cardiologist diagnosed myocardiotis caused by a virus. They said he got it from somewhere, and didn't rule out food poisoning, but there was no stool test taken so we can't prove it." (According to Wikipedia, " A large number of causes of myocarditis have been identified, but often a cause cannot be found.")

Rima and George applied for California Medi-cal and just got accepted last week. "For the past 9 months we have barely been holding on financially," she says. "His monthly deductible is $2578 which doesn't cover any expenses under this amount, so I have to pay all the bills unless he ends up in a critical condition--when the bills escalate over this amount.

"When we first went to this restaurant it was Grade A but after George got sick, I had to find out about the restaurant so I phoned the California Department of Health and filed a complaint. They called me back and said they inspected the restaurant and all the temperatures were OK but the restaurant never did have an A grade—it is graded as B. They said many restaurants do that to attract customers but that isn't enough to file a complaint."

Most cases of foodborne illness are difficult to connect to a particular restaurant. Or like George, many people think they just have a 'bug'. Very often the food eaten will have been destroyed by the time a foodborne illness shows its symptoms, or no stool sample is provided to actually confirm food poisoning, or the incident is reported after the person is well so a stool sample would be irrelevant.

Many states have adopted strict product liability laws, and a foodborne illness attorney can help with a food poisoning lawsuit. You just have to show that the food product you ate was contaminated and that the contamination was the cause of your illness.