Wal-Mart Sued Over E. Coli Illness

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. — An attorney yesterday filed suit here against Bentonville, Ark.-based Wal-Mart stores, alleging that an 18-year-old woman had contracted E. coli, suffered kidney failure and was hospitalized for three weeks due to eating frozen hamburger patties purchased at a local Wal-Mart in August. Topps Meat, Elizabeth, N.J., maker of the hamburgers in question, on Tuesday announced a recall of 331,582 pounds of frozen hamburger patties distributed in the New York City area as well as nationwide. USDA tests indicated that the strain of E. coli found in the affected woman’s lab tests was the same as the one that led to the Topps recall. “We’re not sure why it took both Topps and Wal-Mart so long to respond to this danger,” said Shelden Schlesinger, the plaintiff’s attorney. “They were both notified last month, once [her] lab test results were completed and once the E. coli diagnosis was made.”

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