TACOMA — Another lawsuit has been filed against a local burger chain that has been named as a source of recent Listeria cases.
Seattle attorney William Marler filed the complaint Tuesday in Pierce County Superior Court on behalf of Ronald Carl Salers, 64, of Spanaway.
It is the third lawsuit filed by Marler representing three separate customers. Each case describes the customer falling seriously ill after consuming milkshakes from Frugals, 10727 Pacific Ave. S., Tacoma. One of the three died, while the others survived after going through a lengthy recovery process as outlined in the filings.
In the latest case, the filing states that Salers consumed a strawberry milkshake June 24 from the Tacoma Frugals. On June 30, Salers fell ill “with chills and aches,” the filing stated.
On July 5, he “developed a severe headache and back ache. He began to run a fever more than 100 degrees accompanied by nausea and vomiting. Paramedics were called when he was unable to get out of bed due to the head pain,” the filing states.
His temperature had risen to 103 by the time paramedics arrived. He was transported to Good Samaritan Hospital in Puyallup, where he was placed in isolation “due to presumed Listeria infection and meningitis,” according to the filing.
“A spinal tap confirmed his Listeria infection,” it added.
He remained hospitalized until July 12 and was sent home with an IV drip, which he remained on until July 28, the filing stated.
The second lawsuit against the burger chain was filed Friday involving Chong Kang Garbino, 79, of Tacoma. Garbino was hospitalized, survived and also placed on an IV drip at home (though for a longer period than Salers).
The first lawsuit, filed Aug. 21, involved Charles Roberson, 73, of Yelm, who died June 20 after complications following a surgery performed after his symptoms initially pointed to a possible neurological issue.
Listeriosis cases were first reported in July in Western Washington in an outbreak that eventually sickened six in Pierce and Thurston counties and killed three of the six. The illness is an infection caused by Listeria bacteria, which can contaminate food.
On Aug. 18, DOH and the Tacoma-Pierce County Health Department announced that there had been a breakthrough in the investigation of the outbreak. DOH said two of the people who came down with illnesses from Listeria bacteria (listeriosis) consumed milkshakes from the Tacoma Frugals site.
A TPCHD health inspection Aug. 8 outlined an issue in the site’s machine cleaning process, stating, “The manual requires that inlet and tubing be cleaned with a scrub brush. No scrub brushes available at time of inspection and the clean process outlined in this report does not include the cleaning up tubing.”
The inspection also stated, “Observed a small crack in the holding bin of machine 1.”
Frugals discontinued use of its two milkshake machines at the site as of Aug. 8. DOH has said that the machines “will be kept out of service until the Tacoma-Pierce County Health Department determines they are free of Listeria contamination and no longer pose a danger to the public.”
TPCHD media representative Kenny Via told The News Tribune in response to questions Tuesday that “shakes are still not allowed on their menu,” and that they were still in “Step 1,” awaiting results from a third-party inspection.
In information TPCHD shared earlier outlining the steps required of the site, Frugals must first, “Provide a report from a third-party, private lab showing each machine’s internal parts have tested negative for listeria monocytogenes. TPCHD will review the report.”
Via, on Tuesday, noted that they “could either go through this route of having these machines refurbished and tested or they could buy new machines,” along with other improvements before a follow-up inspection and report.
Frugals has said it halted milkshake sales at its other locations, with samples to be tested, out of an abundance of caution. The company has locations in Auburn, Port Angeles and Spokane as well as in Montana.
Frugals sent a statement to The News Tribune on Tuesday evening:
“Our hearts go out to the individuals and families who are hurting. Frugals has been a proud member of the Tacoma community for over 33 years. We remain deeply saddened for any harm our actions could have brought to it. We will continue to fully cooperate with and support this ongoing investigation, and we will continue to do everything we can to learn how this contamination occurred and how to ensure nothing like this can ever happen again.”
