New Delhi:

A Canadian man, whose wife and eight-year-old kid died from food poisoning during their stay at a Dominican Republic resort, is now suing the resort and its travel agency partners for $10 million, reported The New York Post.

Stephen Gougeon and his family members filed a statement of claim in Ontario Superior Court in Toronto on Monday, claiming that Wyndham Hotels and Resorts and Air Transat companies were negligent in the deaths of his wife April Gougeon, 41, and son Oliver Gougeon, 8, that took place on December 29, 2023.

The claim stated that the family of four, including their other son Wesley, travelled from Toronto to Viva Dominicus Beach by Wyndham Resort just after Christmas in December 2023. After eating dinner at the buffet, all four became violently ill. However, the family’s first call for medical help in their room was denied. 

“We were all throwing up,” father Stephen Gougeon told Canadian news outlet CTV.

The resort only sent help when it became clear that they “weren’t getting better,” Stephen said.

The following morning, the family was brought to a nearby hospital, where Ashley and Oliver began having trouble breathing. Soon after, they died from “secondary causes related to food poisoning.”

“They degraded and then my son passed away … and then very shortly after, my wife passed away,” Stephen Gougeon told CTV. 

He waited until the next day to share the news with his son Wesley, who was just 7 at the time, that he would never see his mother or older brother again.

The $10 million civil lawsuit, filed by Stephen Gougeon, claims that the resort failed to provide adequate emergency procedures and hygiene and failed to promptly address the family’s medical needs.

“When [the resort] finally responded after our further plea, there appeared to be confusion about how to handle the situation. These delays cost precious time that could have been used to treat our illness. And in the end, it cost my wife and my son their lives,” Stephen said in a statement.

Washington (US):

McDonald’s worked Wednesday to reassure customers that its US restaurants are safe as federal investigators tried to pinpoint the cause of a deadly E coli outbreak linked to fast-food giant’s Quarter Pounder hamburgers.

McDonald’s pulled Quarter Pounders from one-fifth of its US stores Tuesday as a result of the outbreak, which the US Centres for Disease Control and Prevention said had sickened at least 49 people in 10 states. One person died and 10 were hospitalized, according to the CDC.

A preliminary investigation by the US Food and Drug Administration suggested fresh slivered onions that are served raw on Quarter Pounder hamburgers were a likely source of the contamination.

McDonald’s said it was searching for a new regional supplier for fresh onions. In the meantime, Quarter Pounders were removed from menus in the impacted states as well as portions of other states.

McDonald’s said it has worked closely with federal food safety regulators since late last week, when it was alerted to the potential outbreak. The company said the scope of the problem and the popularity of its products have complicated efforts to identify the contamination source.

McDonald’s has more than 14,000 US stores and serves 1 million Quarter Pounders every two weeks in the affected area.

McDonald’s is known for its stringent food safety guidelines and protocols, said Chris Gaulke, a professor of food and beverage management at Cornell University’s Nolan School of Hotel Administration. The company said Wednesday that the supplier regularly tested its onions for E coli, for example.

“Given the volume of food that they go through, how infrequently this happens to McDonald’s is a testament to the effort that they take,” Gaulke said.

But some experts questioned why McDonald’s simply stopped selling one sandwich and didn’t close restaurants for further investigation.

“Good practice would have been to close all the restaurants,” Bill Marler, a Seattle lawyer who specialises in food safety cases, said. “Until we know definitively what the product was that made people sick, consumers should be aware.” Marler said cross-contamination remains a potential possibility at the affected restaurants until they are thoroughly cleaned.

Asked why it didn’t close any stores, McDonald’s said nothing in the government’s investigation indicated there were issues with its food preparation practices. In an interview on the “Today” show Wednesday, McDonald’s US President Joe Erlinger also said it’s likely that whatever product was contaminated has already passed through the company’s supply chain.

The Centres for Disease Control and Prevention reported the outbreak late Tuesday. It said infections were reported between Sept. 27 and October 11 in Colorado, Iowa, Kansas, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Oregon, Utah, Wisconsin and Wyoming.

State and local public health officials were interviewing people about the foods they ate in the week before they got sick. Of the 18 people interviewed as of Tuesday, all reported eating at McDonald’s, and 16 people reported eating a beef hamburger. Twelve reported eating a Quarter Pounder.

McDonald’s said it’s unlikely the beef in the Quarter Pounder was the source, since it comes from multiple suppliers and is cooked at a high enough temperature to kill E coli.

McDonald’s said its initial findings suggest that some of the reported illnesses were linked to onions from a single supplier, which the company didn’t name. McDonald’s said the onions are cleaned and sliced by the supplier and then packaged for use on individual Quarter Pounders.

The incubation period for E coli is only a couple of days, so illness would be quickly apparent to anyone affected, said Donald Schaffner, a food safety expert at Rutgers University. “If you ate these burgers in September and now it’s the middle of October and you didn’t get sick, you’re probably OK,” he said.

E coli bacteria are harbored in the guts of animals and found in the environment. Infections can cause severe illness, including fever, stomach cramps and bloody diarrhea. People who develop symptoms of E. coli poisoning should seek health care immediately and tell the provider what they ate.

The type of bacteria implicated in the McDonald’s food causes about 74,000 infections in the U.S. annually, leading to more than 2,000 hospitalisations and 61 deaths each year, according to the CDC. In general, E. coli infections were lower in 2023 than in recent years and cases of severe kidney injury caused by the bacteria remained stable, according to latest federal data.

Outbreaks at restaurant chains are rare, but they do happen. AP MNK MNK

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

Visakhapatnam:

Three children died at an orphanage in Andhra Pradesh’s Anakapalli district on Monday due to suspected food poisoning.

As many as 27 inmates were taken ill after eating ‘samosas’ on Sunday at the orphanage in Kailasa town under Kotauratla Mandal. Three of them died on Monday while undergoing treatment at a hospital in Anakapalli.

The children have been identified as Joshua, a first-grade student, and Bhavani and Shraddha, both in third grade. The remaining 24 are undergoing treatment at different hospitals in Narsipatnam and Anakapalli.

Seven of them were admitted to the Narsipatnam Area Hospital while 17 were shifted to the Anakapalle Area Hospital. Sources said the condition of four children were reported to be critical following which they were shifted to the King George Hospital (KGH) in Visakhapatnam for further treatment.

The orphanage is run by an NGO. It has 60 children studying in a local government school.

Anakapalli District Collector K. Vijaya has ordered an investigation into the incident, besides directing the concerned officials to ensure that the affected students get best possible medical treatment.

District Education Officer Appa Rao has taken up the investigation into the incident. The officials suspect that necessary precautions were not taken in the preparation of food, which resulted in the tragedy.

Meanwhile, Minister for Human Resources Development Nara Lokesh has expressed shock over the incident. He also spoke to Health Minister Y. Satya Kumar and the District Collectors of Anakapalli and Alluri Seetharamaraju about the incident.

The Minister posted on X that he was deeply moved by the death of the students after eating contaminated food in the orphanage in Kailasa town.

“The authorities have been ordered to provide better treatment to the students who have been admitted to hospitals. I request the authorities to act vigilantly so that such incidents do not take place in the future,” Lokesh said.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

Yokohama, Japan:

Grilled eel, or unagi, a popular summer delicacy in Japan, is behind a department store food poisoning incident that has left more than 140 people sick and one dead, the store’s president said.

Shinji Kaneko of Keikyu Department Store in Yokohama – about an hour from Tokyo – apologised after the customers, who last week bought lunch boxes containing eel, suffered vomiting and diarrhoea. One of the customers – reportedly a woman in her 90s – died, Shinji Kaneko told reporters on Monday (Jul 29), bowing deeply and offering “our most sincere condolences”.

The products included eel cooked in the traditional “kabayaki” style: Skewered, grilled and basted in a sweet, sticky mixture of soy sauce and mirin rice wine.

Consumed worldwide, eel is particularly popular in Asia, and remains found in Japanese tombs show it has been eaten on the archipelago for thousands of years.

A probe by health officials detected a type of bacteria called staphylococcus aureus in the products, Keikyu Department Store said.

“We take what happened very seriously and feel deeply sorry about it. We will fully cooperate with investigations by public health authorities,” Kaneko said.

Tokyo-based restaurant Isesada, which operates a stand inside the Keikyu department store, was responsible for cooking and directly selling the eel products.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

Agartala:

At least 30 girl students fell ill after having a meal at a hostel run by an NGO in West Tripura district on Thursday, an official said.

The state government ordered an inquiry into the suspected food poisoning of girl students of Bodhjung Higher Secondary School and Maharani Tulsibati School, West Tripura District Magistrate Vishal Kumar told reporters.

The girl students of the two government schools resided in the NGO-hostel in Indranagar area and had the meal before going to their respective institutions.

“Two girls first complained of stomach pain and soon, more students reported the same issue. The students were taken to GBP Hospital,” he said.

“Food samples were collected from the hostel for scrutiny. We will take appropriate steps if anything adverse is found in the food served to the girl students by the hostel authorities. The condition of the students is stated to be stable,” he said.

Chief Minister Manik Saha, who visited the students at the hospital, said it appeared to be a case of food poisoning.

“The students are stable… the government has ordered an inquiry into the incident for taking necessary steps,” the CM added.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

Pilibhit:

A 12-year-old boy died and five people of his family here were taken ill allegedly after consuming noodles, officials said on Sunday.

According to locals, six members of a family, including three three children, in Puranpur area fell ill after having noodles and rice on Thursday night.

They went to a private hospital and returned home the next day after their condition improved, however, the same night they again started feeling uneasy, they said.

Rohan’s condition worsened and he died shortly after, hospital officials said.

“Five people were admitted here with complaints of food poisoning on Saturday. The condition of another minor, Vivek, was critical so he has been referred to a hospital in nearby Bareilly district,” Dr Rashid, a doctor at the Community Health Centre (CHC) Pilibhit, told PTI.

The condition of the remaining four is said to be stable.

As per police, the family members have not lodged any complaint regarding the incident.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)