Virginia woman nearly died from tainted Boars Head deli meat, $11 million lawsuit says

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Andrew Feinberg

White House Correspondent

A meal of tainted Boar’s Head liverwurst put a Virginia woman in the ICU for nearly a week, her temperature spiking to near-deadly levels from the contaminated lunchmeat, according to an $11 million lawsuit filed in federal court.

On July 13, the day after eating the liverwurst she regularly buys at a Harris Teeter Lightfoot Market in Williamsburg, 76-year-old Barbara Schmidt “began to feel ill with vomiting, fever, fatigue, headache, chills, and confusion,” the lawsuit states. Following a three-day stay in the hospital, Schmidt was sent home to recover, it goes on. But when her condition soon took a sharp turn for the worse, and Schmidt came down with a 104-degree fever, she was hospitalized again, according to the suit.

“During this stay, [Schmidt] spent... six days in ICU undergoing invasive procedures that were necessary to save her life,” states the lawsuit, which was filed Friday.

Schmidt was released from intensive care on July 29, sent to rehab for 10 days, and is now finally back home, where she continues to endure antibiotic infusions “to combat the Listeria infection,” according to the suit. A spinal tap confirmed Schmidt’s condition was in fact connected to the Boar’s Head outbreak, the suit says.

In late July, Boar’s Head recalled millions of pounds of liverwurst, ham, beef salami, bacon, and other meat products produced in its Jarratt, Virginia, plant — where federal inspectors said they found 69 instances of noncompliance, including pulverized “meat build-up” coating the walls, puddles of standing blood throughout the facility, gnats, ladybugs, beetles, and cockroaches in one of the curing rooms, a “steady line of ants” entering another, mold, mildew, and filthy conditions in, among other places, the bologna kitchen, ham-netting department, and the frank-stuffing area.

Listeria is “certainly the most deadly pathogen, short of botulism, that we deal with in the US,” attorney Bill Marler, who is representing Schmidt, told The Independent.

“If you wanted to kind of come up with how to best grow listeria, you would produce it in a factory like this,” Marler said.

Meats processed at the Jarratt location, which were distributed nationwide, have been blamed for 57 hospitalizations in 18 states, as well as nine deaths in New York, South Carolina, Illinois, New Jersey, Florida, Tennessee, New Mexico, and Virginia. Public health officials say the actual number of people affected is likely higher than what has so far been reported. The recalled products were also shipped to the Cayman Islands, Mexico, Panama, and the Dominican Republic.

“Listeriosis is a sepsis, so it gets into the bloodstream, it gets into the spinal fluid, and that’s what sometimes kills people because they have brain-swelling and die,” Marler explained, noting that Schmidt’s condition remains “unstable.” “She fortunately got on high-dose antibiotics and survived, [but] it’ll be unclear for a while as to whether or not she has long-term complications… We’re hopeful that that’s not the case.

Schmidt’s lawsuit is at least the eighth filed by consumers sickened in the nation’s biggest listeria outbreak since 2011, when 33 people died from eating cantaloupe containing the bacteria.

A Boar’s Head spokesperson did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Monday. In a statement, Boar’s Head previously said it “deeply regret[s] the impact this recall has had on affected families. No words can fully express our sympathies and the sincere and deep hurt we feel for those who have suffered losses or endured illness.” The company said it “immediately paused production” at the Jarratt plant when the outbreak occurred, and “will not resume operations here until we are confident that all products from this facility meet USDA regulatory standards and Boar’s Head’s highest quality and safety standards.”

“We have been working together with the USDA and government regulatory agencies, along with the industry’s leading global food safety experts, to conduct a rigorous investigation to determine how this happened,” the statement said. “We are very close to concluding our investigation and sharing our findings as soon as the USDA has reviewed them.”

The liverwurst production area at the Jarratt plant was one of the worst in the entire place, according to Marler, who pointed to findings in the government inspection reports of standing water, condensation, and “lots of dirt” there. Further, Marler said, liverwurst is overwhelmingly consumed by older people, who are highly susceptible to listeriosis, the bacterial illness caused by Listeria monocytogenes.

“As a further direct result of being sickened by Defendant’s defective food product, Plaintiff has incurred, and will continue to incur, substantial medical bills and expenses associated with the treatment of her injuries; has suffered, and will continue to suffer, lost wages and wage-earning capacity; and has suffered, and will continue to suffer, significant pain, emotional anguish, and other damages,” the suit states.

Earlier this month, Boar’s Head was sued by the family of Günter Morgenstein, an 88-year-old Holocaust survivor who reportedly died after consuming listeria-tainted liverwurst produced by the company.

The incubation period for listeriosis is three to 70 days, Marler told The Independent. As the Boar’s Head recall took place in July, Marler said he expects to see new cases “pop up over the next several months, which is really frightening.”

Boar’s Head “marketed its deli-meat product, including the liverwurst consumed by Plaintiff, as safe for consumption and, as the company’s slogan states, made with ‘Ingredients of Trust,’” Schmidt’s lawsuit states. “... The deli-meat consumed by Plaintiff was not safe, nor was it made with ‘Ingredients of Trust,’ as they were contaminated with Listeria.”

Schmidt is demanding $1 million in compensatory damages and $10 million in punitive damages, plus attorneys’ fees.