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Child disabled due to tainted meat sues grocery chains

By: Kevin Rollason

Posted: 05/17/2011 1:00 AM

A Winnipeg child who ate ground beef tainted with deadly E. coli bacteria -- commonly known as hamburger disease -- will never see again or be able to look after himself.

The nine-year-old child, who is a permanent ward of Winnipeg Child and Family Services, is suing Westfair Foods, Superstore and XL Foods for general damages, including care costs throughout his life and loss of future income.

"This is a child with catastrophic injuries," lawyer Norm Cuddy said on Monday.

"E. coli poisoning is one of the nastiest things. This child has been left blind and brain-damaged. And it was from a bad batch of ground hamburger."

Cuddy said the child was hospitalized in June 2004, but all of his injuries weren't known until a few years later.

"For the first year or two they didn't know if the child would survive," he said.

Another lawyer working on the lawsuit, Chris Wullum, said the child is a permanent ward of Winnipeg CFS because the mother wasn't able to look after him with all of his special needs.

According to the statement of claim, filed in Manitoba Court of Queen's Bench last week, the child's mother bought the ground beef at the Superstore on McPhillips Street.

The lawsuit claims that the child became "severely ill" some time after ingesting the ground beef and had to be hospitalized.

The child suffered hemolytic uremic syndrome, received a kidney transplant, has spastic triplegia, severe and ongoing pain and has developmental delays, including not being able to take care of himself.

A spokesperson for Westfair Foods and the parent company of XL Foods could not be reached for comment.

The Canadian Food Inspection Agency initiated a recall of the ground beef products in August 2004 after two people in Manitoba were poisoned with E. coli bacteria in July 2004 and after tracing back those and other cases across the country to find the source of the meat.

According to the Health Canada website, to minimize chances of contracting hamburger disease, cook ground beef thoroughly to an internal temperature of 71 C, or 160 F. Symptoms of hamburger disease range from not being sick at all or a bad flu feeling, to kidney failure, seizures, stroke and death.

Health Canada says you can also be exposed to E. coli through unpasteurized milk, apple cider or contaminated vegetables.

kevin.rollason@freepress.mb.ca

Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition May 17, 2011 B2

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