OTTAWA COUNTY, Mich. — 13 ON YOUR SIDE has new information related to an E.coli outbreak at several Wendy's restaurants across the country, including here in West Michigan back in 2022.
A West Michigan family has filed a lawsuit after an 11-year-old girl was hospitalized following her visit to eat at one of those restaurants in Jenison.
“The biggest thing is accountability. Holding Meritage accountable for the way that they allowed this restaurant to be operated,” said the family’s attorney, Tom Worsfold.
Worsfold claims the child ate at the Wendy’s location on Port Sheldon Road in August of 2022 during the outbreak.
He said she was grabbing a bite to eat with her friends after softball practice.
Days later, he said the girl became severely ill and was later confirmed to be infected by the bacteria.
Worsfold said what makes this case unique is that the pre-teen didn't have lettuce that was contaminated with the bacteria. This means her food was cross-contaminated since the origin of the outbreak was found to be the lettuce,
"She got sick anyway with a strand of E. coli bacteria that was traced back to this outbreak that was investigated by the CDC and various state and county health departments,” said Worsfold.
Worsfold said this happened because of poor safety and health conditions at the location.
He claimed this location was investigated twice by the Ottawa County Health Department for both its safety practices and the E.coli break out. He said the staff was found to not clean areas properly, not wash their hands and did not maintain proper temperatures for food storage.
"When the Ottawa County Health Department went to investigate this E coli outbreak because many of these serious infections that were reported, traced back to that location, they found many of the same issues two weeks later after their first visit, with not changing gloves with not washing hands with not sanitizing surfaces properly,” said Worsfold.
After spending days in the hospital, the pre-teen was eventually diagnosed with Hemolytic Uremic Syndrome (HUS). The syndrome impacted her kidneys, which led to diabetes, seizures and brain damage. As a result, her academic abilities declined significantly.
We reached out to the Meritage Hospitality Group, the company that owns the Jenison location, to comment on the lawsuit.
The group released the following statement:
"We take the health and safety of our customers very seriously. We deny any wrongdoing or failure of our food safety practices in this case. We cannot provide further comment in light of the open litigation."
Worsfold also said Meritage Hospitality Group fired the regional manager and manager at the restaurant and brought in new staff after this situation.
But even with the changes, he said those decisions won't make up for what his client has gone through in the last two years.
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