Simon & Luke Files Second Nebraska Cyclospora Lawsuit Against Olive Garden

LINCOLN, Neb., Aug. 14, 2013 /PRNewswire/ -- The nationally renowned food safety law firm of Simon & Luke, along with local counsel, Miller Grell Law Group, has filed another lawsuit in Nebraska stemming from a multi-state Cyclospora outbreak linked to salad mix produced by Taylor Farms of Mexico and served at Olive Garden Restaurants.   A copy of the lawsuit is available upon request.

The lawsuit was filed in Lancaster County, Nebraska, on behalf of Erin May, a pregnant mother-to-be.  According to the lawsuit, she consumed the salad served during a meal at the Olive Garden restaurant located at 90 Gateway Mall in Lincoln, Nebraska.  Shortly thereafter, she began to experience diarrhea, vomiting, nausea, fever and chills, dehydration, loss of appetite and related weight loss.  She was initially diagnosed with gastroenteritis, and thereafter her symptoms were deemed to be pregnancy-related.  But by mid-July, it became obvious that the symptoms were not improving and there was another more serious underlying condition.  She again sought treatment from her primary care physicians and provided a stool test. 

Her stool tests came in on July 12^th and indicted that she had tested positive for Cyclospora parasite.  At that point, Erin was diagnosed with cyclosporiasis.  She was prescribed the sulfate-antibiotic Bactrim for two weeks.  The decision to treat her with Bactrim was complex, given the considerable controversy regarding treatment of a pregnant woman with a category C drug.

Plaintiff was subsequently contacted by the Nebraska Department of Health and Human Services and informed that she was one of over 86 Nebraska citizens linked to a nationwide Cyclospora outbreak.  The outbreak has since grown to 535 confirmed cases in 18 states.  The Nebraska cases have been linked to consumption of salads served at Olive Garden and Red Lobster locations.  The salad mix was produced in and imported from Mexico by Taylor Farms.  Taylor Farms has since suspended its operations in Mexico.

According to the CDC website, Cyclospora is a parasite that is commonly spread by ingestion of food or water contaminated with feces.   http://www.cdc.gov/parasites/cyclosporiasis/gen_info/faqs.html

Ron Simon, counsel for Erin May, issued the following statement this afternoon: "When consumers dine at Olive Garden, they have a right to believe that their food is free of human or animal feces.  Through these lawsuits, we will find out how these salads became contaminated, and make sure this does not happen again."

Mr. Simon represents dozens of Cyclospora victims nationwide in this outbreak and anticipates filing several additional lawsuits in the coming days.

About Ron Simon
Ron Simon's groundbreaking work on behalf of victims in several recent national food borne illness outbreaks (Townsend Farms Organic Berries, Peter Pan peanut butter, Castleberry's chili, Nestle cookie dough, Peanut Corporation of America Peanut products, JBS Swift beef, Daniele salami, Subway sandwiches, Wright County Egg eggs, Agromod papayas, and Moon Marine sushi, to name a few) have been featured on NBC, ABC, CBS, CNN, FOX and virtually all other major television networks and in print media.   His firm has represented over 5000 victims of food-borne outbreaks in the past five years alone, and has collected over $550,000,000 for its clients. 

The firm regularly publishes articles about food safety and litigation at www.myfoodpoisoninglawyer.com which are read by viewers in over 180 countries.

For media inquiries or more information on this outbreak and ongoing litigation, please contact Ron Simon directly at (713) 819-8116 or [email protected] or Tony Coveny at (713) 306-3880 or [email protected].

SOURCE Simon & Luke LLP