The salmonella lawyers at Ron Simon & Associates have filed the first salmonella lawsuit against Costco Wholesale Corporation and its supplier of Norwegian Smoked Salmon, Foppen, for the 2012 outbreak of Salmonella Thompson that sickened at least 1200 individuals (with estimates running into the tens of thousands of victims who were not identified by health agencies). As the statute of limitations for filing a salmonella lawsuit neared, Ron Simon filed the complaint on behalf of his client, Lorena Vasquez, a Texas resident who was sickened after consuming the Norwegian Smoked Salmon at her home in Pharr, Hidalgo County, Texas. She had purchased the smoked salmon from her local Costco store and consumed it at home.
The salmonella outbreak that sickened Ms. Vasquez first made headlines after about 60 victims were identified by the National Institute for Public Health (RIVM) and the Netherlands Food and Consumer Product Safety Authority (NVWA) in September of 2012. That number began to grow rapidly as new Salmonella Thompson cases were identified, with cases being reported throughout the Netherlands, other parts of Europe, and the United States. By October, the fact that 900 victims had tested positive for Salmonella Thompson was making both national and international headlines, reflecting the fact that this was one of the largest salmonella outbreaks on record in Europe’s history. By January, when the appearance of new cases finally came to a halt, over 1200 victims had been identified – the outbreak was over, officially, but the process of recovery was only beginning for many of the victims.
The estimates of many health professionals put the number of victims at as many as seventeen thousand or more who were not captured in the official number either because they did not seek medical attention or because they were not tested for salmonella. At least four deaths were attributed to Salmonella Thompson. In the United States, a spike in Salmonella Thompson cases was also recorded, sending at least 10 individuals to the hospital. Costco was the sole distributor of Foppen’s Norwegian Smoked Salmon in the United States.
Salmonella lawyer Ron Simon, who has represented thousands of salmonella victims, was retained in the aftermath of the outbreak by Lorena Vasquez who has accrued approximately $67,000 in medical expenses due to the severity of her illness. She was hospitalized, forced to undergo surgery, and now suffers from Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS), a serious side effect of salmonellosis in some victims. Salmonella lawyer Ron Simon, who filed the salmonella lawsuit in Hidalgo County, made this statement: “Ms. Vasquez consumed the smoked salmon without a second thought trusting that the products she purchased at Costco would be safe and free of dangerous bacteria. Unfortunately, within days she was very ill and for the next year she suffered severe, ongoing effects of salmonellosis. She is still recovering as of today.”
For additional information, call the offices of Ron Simon & Associates at 713-335-4900.
