Official numbers put the cucumber salmonella outbreak victim count at 558 and rising, but that is only the tip of the iceberg says cucumber Salmonella lawyer Ron Simon who filed a wrongful death Salmonella cucumber lawsuit last week in San Diego.
As a long-time food safety advocate and food poisoning lawyer, Ron Simon notes “the official count is normally only a small fraction of the overall number of victims.” Simon points to one statistic, put forward by the CDC, that often only one in thirty victims in a food borne outbreak are identified – often only the most seriously ill and those who, unfortunately, do not survive the infection. This is the case of the victim in Ron Simon’s wrongful death Salmonella cucumber lawsuit filed last week in San Diego, and it is true of victims who died in Texas, where Ron Simon’s office is headquartered, and Arizona, where another victim died.
So far, the outbreak of Salmonella Poona has an average hospitalization rate of about 25% of confirmed cases. There is also preliminary evidence that at least some of the Salmonella Poona victims in this outbreak have a strain resistant to some of the traditional antibiotics, a growing health concern in nation-wide outbreaks that some argue is linked to the heavy use of antibiotics in the meat and poultry industry. This is an issue being raised in litigation against Foster Farms by Ron Simon in an outbreak linking many hundreds of illnesses to Salmonella Heidelberg in Foster Farms chicken. Ironically, Ron Simon’s lead case in that outbreak involves the illness of a minor, Alexander Melendez. In this cucumber outbreak of Salmonella Poona, over half of all the victims are minors.
The cucumber Salmonella Poona outbreak is also widespread, affecting victims in 33 states.
Officials have known the source of the cucumbers since early September, and on the 4th of this month the company who imported and distributed the tainted cucumbers – San Diego company Andrew & Williamson Fresh Produce – recalled them.
The recalled “American” cucumbers, as they are commonly called (as well as “slicer” cucumbers), are actually a product of Baja Mexico. They were sold nationally in large bulk boxes bearing the name “Limited Edition.” A short time after the recall, “Fat Boy” cucumbers (procured from Andrew & Williamson Fresh Produce) were recalled by the distributor Custom Produce Sales. Unfortunately, these recalls were too little too late, as the infected cucumbers were on the market for at least 30 days.
For more information, to discuss a wrongful death Salmonella cucumber lawsuit, or to file a claim or lawsuit against Andrew & Williamson Fresh Produce, call the Salmonella Hotline at 1-888-335-4901 to speak to a cucumber Salmonella lawyer.
