If your parent has listeriosis, he or she was sickened by food contaminated with Listeria monocytogenes bacteria. If the food that made your parent sick can be determined, your parent can sue for compensation and justice.
Contact our law firm if you mother or father has been diagnosed with listeriosis.
If your parent is too sick, you (or your other parent, if healthy) can sue on his or her behalf. For example, we represented a husband and wife in a case against a company that sold tainted raw milk. The husband was in the hospital fighting for his life when his children contacted our lawyers, who flew across the country to meet with the family. Because her husband was too impaired to make decisions, the wife decided to sue on his behalf, and she also had a claim for “loss of consortium,” meaning the loss of a normal married life. Our law firm won a multi-million-dollar settlement for this lovely couple, who have become tireless food safety advocates.
If your parent does not survive, your family may have a wrongful death claim, meaning your family can sue the company (or companies) that sold the tainted food that killed your mother or father.
Attorneys at Pritzker Hageman know what you are going through. The mother of our founding attorney, Fred Pritzker, was diagnosed with listeriosis after eating cheese contaminated with Listeria monocytogenes. She died shortly thereafter. Fred created the food poisoning legal team at Pritzker Hageman to help the many, many families harmed by contaminated food hold corporate wrongdoers accountable. Contact our Listeria food poisoning attorneys at 1-888-377-8900 (toll free).
Is Your Parent Part of an Outbreak of Listeria Infections?
If the CDC has confirmed that your parent was sickened in a listeriosis outbreak, epidemiological and trace-back investigations can be done to determine the food that caused the illness.
Epidemiological evidence includes interviews regarding food eaten in the month before onset of illness. If several people in different states ate the same product and were sickened by Listeria bacteria with the same DNA pattern (found with pulsed-field gel electrophoresis (PFGE)), that is strong evidence that the food product caused the illnesses. If Listeria with the same PFGE pattern is found in the plant or a product, that is “smoking gun” evidence.
Recent Listeria outbreaks of this illness have been caused by cheese, raw milk and related dairy products, frozen vegetables, ice cream, apples (both sliced and made into caramel apples), cantaloupe and celery.
Because the incubation period can be as long as 70 days, finding the source of an outbreak can be difficult. However, new technology called Whole Genome Sequencing (WGS) provides investigators genetic data that can help connect illnesses with food products and processing plants.
Help for You and Your Mother or Father
We have helped many people like you who have had to watch a mother or father suffer incomprehensible pain because a company sold unsafe food. You want answers. What food caused the illness? Why was this dangerously tainted food sold? Was the food processed in a filthy plant? Was testing for this bacteria done before the food was sold? If not, why?
Our lawyers can help get answers. That is one reason to file a Listeria lawsuit. There is a lot of evidence that is unavailable unless a company is sued because only then can we:
- force the company to provide copies of corporate documents related to the outbreak;
- interview corporate management and employees;
- take legal measures to get evidence from health departments.
We also believe your parent deserves compensation for his or her suffering.
Listeria is an extremely dangerous pathogen because it can easily invade cells, multiply and quickly move to adjacent cells. The path is often from the intestines to the lungs to the blood (sepsis) and then the brain, where it causes meningitis and/or encephalitis. It is fatal about 30% of the time. And it is always extremely painful.
Your parent should get compensated for the physical pain and emotional distress suffered because of the illness. He or she should also get enough money to cover all medical expenses and cost of care for the duration of his or her life. If your parent has permanent brain damage and mobility issues, the company should pay enough to cover all costs and to compensate for loss of quality of life. The spouse, and in some cases the children, may have claims for compensation, also.
This is a scary time for your family. We want you to know that many of our clients have lived and had many years to enjoy their families. We are constantly amazed and inspired by our clients and their families. We count it a privilege to have had the opportunity to help them. We would like to help your family, too.