Subway Food Poisoning Lawsuit Filed As Salmonella Outbreak Nears 100

A woman who was one of the nearly 100 people allegedly sickened at Subway restaurants in Illinois over the past few months, has filed a salmonella food poisoning lawsuit against the restaurant chain for negligence. 

The complaint was filed on Monday by Alicea Bush-Bailey in Circuit Court in Illinois against the Subway restaurant on North Lake Street in Aurora, Illinois, and Doctor’s Associates, Inc., the Subway’s parent company. Bush-Bailey was one of at least 97 people who were diagnosed with salmonella poisoning after eating at the Subway between May 5 and June 4, according to the Marler Clark law firm, which is representing Bush-Bailey.

According to the lawsuit, Bush-Bailey bought a sandwich at the Subway for lunch on May 12, and by that night she was so ill that she went to the emergency room at Adventist Bollingbrook Hospital. She was treated for severe dehydration, abdominal pain and nausea, and had to take several days off from work to recover.

The salmonella outbreak appears to be tied to Subways across Illinois, affecting restaurants in 28 counties. Subway threw out produce in use during the outbreak, but no specific source of the salmonella outbreak has been identified. The Illinois Department of Public Health is requiring 46 employees at the restaurants to pass two stool tests looking for salmonella before they are allowed to return to work.

Bush-Bailey is suing the restaurant chain for negligence, strict liability and breach of warranty. The lawsuit seeks an unspecified amount of compensation for economic loss and physical injury.

This is the second food poisoning outbreak tied to Subway restaurants in Illinois this year. In March, at least 78 people fell ill and another 11 were hospitalized during a shigellosis outbreak linked to a Chicago-area Subway.

Salmonella is a type of bacteria that attacks the gastrointestinal tract, causing mild to severe food poisoning. For most healthy adults, symptoms of food poisoning from salmonella typically resolve after a few days or weeks. However, young children, the elderly, and individuals with compromised immune systems have an increased risk of suffering severe food poisoning after ingesting the bacteria. If not properly treated, some cases of salmonella poisoning can lead to hospitalization, dehydration or death.

Symptoms of salmonella poisoning include severe abdominal cramps, vomiting, nausea, bloody diarrhea and fever, which usually begin to appear within 12 to 72 hours after consuming contaminated food.