The parents of a Kentucky baby who after drinking bacteria-tainted infant formula are the latest to sue Abbott Nutrition, the manufacturer at the heart of a 2022 crisis that left millions of Americans scrambling to feed their children. Willow Jade Dellaquila, of Carrollton, Kentucky, was 13 days old when she died on Nov. 5, 2023.
She was infected with cronobacter sakazakii, a dangerous germ traced to a can of Similac Total Comfort powdered formula used in the baby’s bottles, records show. “They told me she had a stroke on her right side of the brain,” Cheyenne Ping, Willow’s 25-year-old mother, said in an interview. “It’s really heartbreaking.
No one should have to go through this.” Ping and the baby’s 26-year-old father, Christian Dellaquila, can move forward with a lawsuit against Abbott, an Illinois judge ruled Wednesday. The couple had previously sought to join a lawsuit with two other families who say their children suffered devastating brain damage caused by cronobacter linked to a different type of Abbott powdered formula, Similac Neosure.
Mira White, a Missouri baby, was sickened with cronobacter in March 2023 at age 6 weeks. Ryker Brown, an Illinois toddler, was infected with the bacteria in July 2021, at age 4 weeks. Both survived.
But the judge on Wednesday asked that the three cases be filed separately, leaving open the question of whether they would be consolidated later. The original lawsuit in December targeted Abbott, whose Sturgis, Michigan, p.