Infection leads to lawsuit

An Epsom couple is suing Shop & Stop, saying their 8-year-old son was infected by E.coli bacteria last year from meat bought at the one of the company’s Manchester supermarkets.

Eric Tsirovakas had a hamburger last September at a Labor Day family barbecue, according to a lawsuit filed last week in the U.S. District Court in Concord. Over the following days, Tsirovakas had stomach cramps, nausea, vomiting and diarrhea.

He spent nearly three weeks in the hospital, receiving dialysis treatments for his kidney after doctors diagnosed him with hemolytic uremic syndrome, a condition that developed from the E. coli infection. Doctors will have to monitor him for high blood pressure and kidney failure for the rest of his life, according to the lawsuit.

„The most important thing for us is his future,“ said Tsirovakas’s father, John. „Is he going to be fine and live a healthy life, or will something happen to his kidneys?“

Robert Keane, a spokesman for Stop & Shop, would not comment on the case.

The burger, made from 75 percent lean ground beef, was grilled, according to the court complaint. Tsirovakas had mustard, ketchup and American cheese on the hamburger, John Tsirovakas said.

The lawsuit said that investigations ruled out other ingredients as sources of the illness. A state Department of Health and Human Services investigation tested leftover ground beef from the barbecue and found that it contained E. Coli bacteria, the lawsuit said. The beef was purchased from the Stop & Shop on South Willow Street, the lawsuit said. A Manchester Department of Health investigation then found that the Stop & Shop used a meat grinding process that increased the chance of contamination, the suit claims. The Department of Health also advised customers to return ground beef bought from the Stop & Shop on Sept. 3, 2005.
Tsirovakas, now 9, still suffers from fatigue, his father said. He has quit taekwondo lessons, which he had taken for three years.

„He can only do so much,“ John Tsirovakas said. „His skin would turn pale. Then he would have to relax and cool it for a while.“

John Tsirovakas said his sister-in-law also became ill from the hamburgers, but she did not go to the hospital.

The family’s lawyer, Denis Stearns, said that the family has spent more than $100,000 on medical bills.

„We filed this lawsuit after months of trying to discuss with Stop & Shop how to make matters right for Eric and his family,“ said Stearns, an attorney with Marler Clark, a Seattle law firm that specializes in food contamination cases. Stearns said this was his first case in New Hampshire.

Source: concordmonitor.com