A family is suing Kebab and its beef supplier, claiming its beef infected their child with E. coli
A child ate beef kofta at The Kebab Shop last month in Atwater Village. Days later, he ended up in the emergency room, where medical tests later confirmed he had E. coli that led to life-threatening kidney problems, according to his lawyer.
Now, his family is suing the restaurant company, as well as the manufacturer that supplied the raw ground beef kofta.
Attorneys William D. Marler and Trevor Quirk filed a personal injury case May 29 in Los Angeles County Superior Court on behalf of Samantha Sabaite and her child.
They are suing TKS Restaurants, the parent company of The Kebab Shop, which operates in California, Texas and Florida, and Olympia Food Industries Inc., an Illinois manufacturer that supplied the ground beef.
The complaint alleges that the defendants failed to manufacture, supply and serve food safe for human consumption and violated federal food safety regulations and USDA performance standards governing beef.
According to the lawsuit, the child ate kofta at The Kebab Shop on Los Feliz Boulevard on or about April 1. Two days later, he developed symptoms consistent with an E. coli, including nausea, vomiting, extreme fatigue and bloody diarrhea.
On April 6, his mother brought him to the emergency room at UCLA Santa Monica Medical Center, where tests confirmed that E. coli that produces Shiga toxin, the lawsuit claims.
As the child’s condition deteriorated, he was transferred to the intensive care unit at Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center in Westwood, where he was diagnosed with hemolytic uremic syndrome, or HUS, a life-threatening blood vessel condition that can cause kidney problems, according to the complaint.
The child, the complaint says, required dialysis and blood transfusions and suffered from seizures and decreased pancreatic function.
Whole genome sequencing linked his illness to an outbreak of violence linked to The Kebab Shop beef, according to the lawsuit.
Marler, who has been prosecuting E. coli from In 1993 Jack in the Box broke outthat killed four children and infected more than 700 people, called his client’s illness and the potential outbreak now under investigation “alarming,” given decades of advances in food safety testing and intervention.
On May 24, an inspection by the US Department of Agriculture’s Food Safety and Inspection Service confirmed ground beef supplied by Olympia Foods was contaminated with E. coli O157:H7.
Earlier this week, the California Department of Public Health announced that it was investigating an outbreak of E. coli suspected to be linked to the Kebab Shop chain between March 27 and April 30.
Kebab shop full cooperation with public health officials and voluntarily suspended the sale of roast beef at all locations on May 18, according to a company statement.
“Food safety is the absolute foundation of our business,” the company said. “We take any threat to public health very seriously, and we continue to work diligently with public health officials and food safety experts to ensure the integrity of our products.”
The Kebab Shop does not comment on litigation, according to a statement.
As of May 19, nine Californians have been infected, six of them children, according to the California Department of Public Health. Five people were hospitalized, and two developed HUS.
“Once again, the victims are children in a different way,” Marler said.
The parents of a 3-year-old girl who developed kidney problems after eating tainted beef at a Costa Mesa kebab shop also filed a lawsuit. the case against the restaurant chain and Olympia Foods.
