An inmate can sue for Salmonella poisoning from food served at a prison, jail or other correctional facility if the facts support a claim for personal injury. With food poisoning cases like these, there are usually several inmates sickened by the food. Evidence that these Salmonella infections are connected is obtained with pulsed-field gel electrophoresis (PFGE), a process that separates DNA particles, creating a pattern.
“Inmates sickened by matching Salmonella PFGE patterns, are part of the same outbreak and were sickened by the same source. This PFGE pattern is referred to as the outbreak pattern,” said attorney Fred Pritzker, who has won millions for people sickened by food, including a recent $4.5 million settlement for a young woman who developed kidney failure. “We use PFGE patterns as evidence in lawsuits seeking compensation for outbreak victims.” You can contact Fred for a free consultation (click here now).
Finding the source of a Salmonella outbreak in a prison can be difficult. Investigators generally test samples of food and environmental swabs for Salmonella. If it is found, further PFGE testing is done to see if the Salmonella PFGE pattern matches the outbreak pattern.
If a matching PFGE pattern is found in food at the prison, jail or location where food for those locations was processed or prepared, that food product is considered the source of the outbreak, even if some of the inmates did not eat the food. Inmates that were sickened in the outbreak, even those who did not eat that specific food item, have claims for Salmonella poisoning, possibly against several parties. For example, if it is a state prison, there may be claims against the state, the distributor of the food and the processor of the food.
Failure to Provide Medical Care for Salmonella Food Poisoning
If an inmate is not adequately treated for salmonella food poisoning, the inmate (or the family in the case of a wrongful death) may have the right to sue for compensation.
Prison officials who do not provide reasonable and adequate medical care for an inmate, violate the Eighth Amendment of the United States Constitution in some cases. Some examples of failure to provide medical care giving rise to an 8th Amendment claim include:
- withholding medical care on purpose;
- delaying treatment with the intent to harm the inmate; and
- knowingly interfering with treatment (not carrying out medical orders).
For more information regarding this, read “Lawsuit for Failure to Provide Medical Care in a Prison, Jail or Work Release Program“.
