TIME | BYCHANTELLE LEE | July 12, 2024
A Florida woman is suing the distributor and growers of cucumbers tied to a salmonella outbreak that hit 31 states and D.C. and resulted in 449 people getting sick, alleging that the ones she purchased caused her to experience symptoms ranging from a fever to a urinary tract infection.
Lawyers at Marler Clark and Chaikin Law Firm filed the complaint on behalf of Melissa Milligan on Wednesday against Fresh Start Produce Sales Inc., which distributed the cucumbers, and Bedner Growers Inc., which grew the cucumbers. Milligan is suing on allegations of strict liability, breach of warranty, and negligence, according to the complaint filed in the Circuit Court of the Fifteenth Judicial Circuit in and for Palm Beach County, Florida.
cucumbers at Publix Super Markets at Shoppes at Murabella in St. Augustine, Fla., on two separate occasions—May 19 and June 4—according to the complaint. She ate the cucumbers up until early June, and around June 10, she started experiencing nausea, abdominal cramping, diarrhea, fever, muscle aches, fatigue, headache, and a urinary tract infection—symptoms consistent with a salmonella infection.
A few days later, she went to an urgent care clinic and was prescribed medication for her diarrhea. Her symptoms got worse, so she went to her primary care doctor. She was diagnosed with a salmonella Africana infection from the stool sample she provided, according to Bill Marler, managing partner of Marler Clark and one of Milligan’s lawyers. Her urine test also showed blood in her urine, which can be a symptom of a severe infection, according to the complaint. Milligan is still recovering, and now struggles with anxiety over foods, the complaint said.
Marler says that Milligan will likely make a full recovery, but adds that she incurred medical expenses while seeking treatment. Marler says that it’s up to the jury to decide what compensation Milligan should receive.
“She was fortunate she wasn’t hospitalized, but she was quite ill and for an extended period of time, and having salmonella is not a pleasant experience,” Marler tells TIME.
A spokesperson for Fresh Start Produce Sales said in an emailed statement that the company is “aware of the lawsuit” and is “taking it seriously,” but declined to comment further because it’s a legal matter. Bedner Growers didn’t respond to a request for comment.
The cucumbers Milligan ate were among those recalled by Fresh Start Produce Sales at the end of May because of concerns that they had been contaminated with salmonella, Marler says.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) announced on July 2 that officials at the FDA and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) are investigating a “multistate outbreak of Salmonella Africana and Salmonella Braenderup infections.” The outbreak has led to 449 illnesses in 31 states and the District of Columbia, as of July 1, though the CDC said that the real number of people who became sick is “likely much higher” because many people recover from salmonella without seeking medical care and so are not tested for the bacteria. Of the 188 sick people that officials spoke to, nearly 70% said they had eaten cucumbers.
While initially considered to be two separate outbreaks, the CDC and FDA combined them because they shared many similarities, such as when and where the illnesses occurred, the demographics of people who became sick, and the foods they said they had eaten before they became ill. Investigators believe that cucumbers from Bedner Growers are a likely source of the illnesses, but the FDA emphasized that the company doesn’t account for all the illnesses in the outbreak.
The FDA said officials conducted an inspection at Bender Growers, which supplies produce to Fresh Produce Sales, and found salmonella Braenderup in samples of untreated canal water used by the company—and that it was a match for the strain causing some of the illnesses in this outbreak. Officials found other types of salmonella in both soil and water samples at the site, and are investigating whether those strains caused illnesses as well.
The FDA said that Bedner Growers’ cucumber growing and harvesting season has ended, and that no product from that farm is on the market at this time so there is “likely no ongoing risk to the public.”
Marler says that there may be other people who became ill from eating contaminated cucumbers whose cases haven’t yet been counted by officials. While his firm has only filed the one lawsuit against Fresh Start Produce Sales and Bedner Growers related to this outbreak, he says that his team has been contacted by other people with similar reports.
“The farmers there, they certainly don’t intend to have this happen, but it just, I think, underscores how important food safety is—testing a product before it gets on the market so you don’t have these outbreaks happening,” Marler says.