Below are 5 things food poisoning victims should know:
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- If you ate somewhere and then got sick right away, you most likely did not get sick from that restaurant because the incubation period for foodborne pathogens is generally at least 12-24 hours, with many much longer;
- It is important to know what pathogen made you sick, for example, Campylobacter, Cyclospora, E. coli, Listeria, Salmonella or Shigella;
- If you are diagnosed with food poisoning from a restaurant, keep a receipt or credit card statement showing when you ate at the restaurant;
- A lawsuit against a restaurant or other company responsible for your food poisoning should seek to recover economic damages such as medical bills and wage loss, in addition to non-economic damages, such as pain and suffering;
- A Pulsed-Field Gel Electrophoreses (PFGE) pattern (unique genetic fingerprint of the bacteria) of the pathogen that made you sick (generally found in your stool sample) can be a “smoking gun” for your lawyer if he or she can prove you have the same PFGE pattern as everyone else and got sick within the expected incubation period after eating at the same restaurant.
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