— OPINION — The Flathead City-County Health Department (FCCHD) and the Montana Department of Public Health and Human Services (DPHHS) have been working for the last month to investigate an E. coli O157:H7 outbreak that has sickened 14, killing one, likely linked to a local Wagu ground beef producer. The beef was served at Gunsight Saloon; Hops Downtown Grill; Tamarack Brewing Company; the Lodge at Whitefish Lake; and Harbor Grille.
Clinical and food samples have tested for the same strain of E. coli O157:H7. I represent two of the people sickened, and we will be filing lawsuits against two of the restaurants above and the unnamed supplier and processor of the tainted Wagu ground beef next week.
Frankly, this is one of the larger ground beef E. coli O157:H7 cases I have seen or been involved in for a long while. I certainly hope this outbreak is an aberration and that we are not seeing an uptick in beef-related E.
coli O157:H7 outbreaks. I thought the USDA and the beef industry had put E. coli O157:H7 out to pasture — apparently it has broken the fencing.
Nearly 32 years ago, the infamous Jack-in-the-Box E. coli O157:H7 outbreak was about to erupt unnoticed in southern California and then blow-up in Western Washington in January 1993. I was a 4-year associate when more than 650 were sickened, hundreds hospitalized, dozens with acute kidney failure and four children dead.
The litigation that ensued rocked the beef and restaurant industry and it even wakened a sleepy gover.