A lawsuit has been filed in connection with the E. coli outbreak linked to Carbon Live Fire Mexican Grill in Chicago. Attorneys from a law firm, who have been contacted by five of the 50 who became ill after eating at the restaurant, filed suit on behalf Maria Terese Loparco, a resident of Cook County. The suit was filed today, July 8, in Cook County Circuit Court (Case No. 2016-L- 006752).
On June 25, Loparco ate two chicken tacos and two steak tacos from Carbon, according to the suit. By June 28, she began experiencing chills, stomach cramping, and other flu-like symptoms. By June 30, the gastrointestinal symptoms had worsened to include bloody diarrhea. By the end of the day on June 30, the “diarrhea was pure blood,” according to the complaint. Loparco was rushed to the Urgent Care unit attached to Ingalls Family Care Center in Tinley Park, IL. and later transferred by ambulance to Ingalls Memorial Hospital.
Loparco is among 14 people who required hospitalization for E. coli infections after eating food from the restaurant located at 300 W. 26th Street in the South Side Bridgeport.
Health officials urge anyone who ate restaurant and developed those symptoms to seek medical attention and mention exposure to shiga toxin producing E. coli (STEC). E. coli infections should not be treated with antibiotics or anti-diarrheal medicines as they can worsen symptoms or cause life-threatening complications such as hemolytic uremic syndrome (HUS), which causes kidney failure, seizure, stroke, coma and death.
