A Chicago librarian who allegedly contracted a diarrhea-causing parasitic illness after eating a chalupa from a Portage Park Taco Bell has filed a lawsuit against the company that supplied the lettuce, his attorneys announced Thursday.
Alonso Zaragoza and his wife, Jadhira Sanchez, filed a federal lawsuit against Taylor Farms California and Taylor Fresh Foods Inc. last week. The Chicago couple accused the companies of growing, processing and distributing shredded iceberg lettuce that contained cyclospora. Zaragoza was the only one who got sick.
It’s believed to be the first lawsuit filed in Illinois related to this year’s unusually large outbreak, according to one of the couple’s attorneys, William Marler.
“I look at lawsuits as consumers standing up for themselves,” Marler told the Tribune. “If consumers don’t stand up and make companies accountable for what they’ve done, there’s no incentive on companies to change their behavior.”
The deadly multistate outbreak, linked to iceberg lettuce, has raged on this summer. There have been over 10,000 cases reported nationwide of cyclosporiasis, including 1,535 confirmed and probable cases in Illinois, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Illinois Department of Public Health.
Investigators initially narrowed in on lettuce served at Taco Bell. Federal officials subsequently said they are focused on Taylor Farms as the source of the lettuce in the outbreak, and the company has recalled iceberg lettuce grown in central Mexico.
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According to the lawsuit, Zaragoza purchased a chalupa supreme meal box that contained iceberg lettuce from a Taco Bell restaurant on July 11.
By the next evening, he began experiencing symptoms of a cyclospora infection, including becoming “profoundly weak” and a “sudden and urgent need to use the bathroom,” followed by diarrhea. He said he had to use the bathroom about every hour.
His symptoms continued to worsen over the next couple of days. He became sweaty and feverish, and his diarrhea became bloody, the lawsuit alleges.
On July 15, he went to the emergency department at Northwestern Memorial Hospital. He was examined, placed on intravenous fluids and had multiple samples of blood drawn, the suit said. The Food and Drug Administration announced its investigation into shredded iceberg lettuce served at Taco Bell the day he was discharged, his attorneys said.
However, Zaragoza wasn’t officially diagnosed with cyclosporiasis until Aug. 4, after he visited two other clinics, the lawsuit said. He continued to experience symptoms, including losing about 7 pounds.
“Alonso Zaragoza did everything a person is supposed to do,” a news release from his attorneys said. “He worked until he could not stand up, went to an emergency room, went back for care twice more, and it was still August 4 before anybody could tell him what he had.”
Taylor Farms didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment but has previously said it “(cares) deeply about food safety and the millions of people who trust us to help feed them and their families.”
The lawsuit accused Taylor Farms of not exercising “reasonable care” to prevent the contamination. It said Zaragoza lost out on income due to the illness, including from his side job as a social media content creator. He was unable to eat restaurant food to produce paid restaurant reviews.
Taco Bell wasn’t sued because “nobody in a kitchen on West Belmont Avenue put a parasite on that lettuce,” Zaragoza’s attorneys said. The restaurant chain said it swiftly removed Taylor Farms lettuce from its restaurants. The company didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.
Sanchez also ordered a meal from Taco Bell, but didn’t get sick. However, the lawsuit alleges she missed out on five days of sleep and had to alter her household’s diet because of her husband’s illness.
“This illness does not stop at the person who ate the meal,” the news release said.
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The Associated Press contributed.