Aspen Lamfers lawsuit: Michigan family sue Wendy’s outlet in Jenison after 11 year old develops brain damage after eating contaminated food at the ‘dirty’ venue.
The family of an 11 year old Michigan girl have filed a $20 million lawsuit against Wendy’s after the girl nearly dying after becoming critically ill after eating contaminated food at a ‘dirty’ Wendy’s restaurant.
Aspen Lamfers was treated to a hamburger, chicken nuggets and fries at the fast fast food restaurant in Jenison following softball practice on August 1, 2022. Unbeknownst to the girl or her family, the outlet had been the subject of two recent scathing health inspections that found significant state violations.
Three days after eating at the chain, the girl fell ill and was diagnosed with hemolytic uremic syndrome that develops from E. coli and can be fatal.
The young girl suffered brain, kidney and pancreas damage and was hospitalized for more than four weeks after she experienced seizures and left side paralysis. She also required dialysis.
Her family recently filed a lawsuit against Meritage Hospitality Group, which owns the Wendy’s outlet, on April 1 and is seeking $20million in damages as the restaurant Lamfers ate at was found to have significant Michigan Food Law violations that summer.
Lamfers was feeling sick and had symptoms including nausea, diarrhea and a fever – that are common with E. coli – three days after eating at the Wendy’s.
She was then taken to hospital on August 7, 2022, and taken to a pediatric intensive care unit at Corewell Health’s Helen DeVos Children’s Hospital.
The young girl then needed dialysis treatment as her kidneys were in stage 3 failure and the infection attacked her pancreas, which meant she needed an insulin drip.
Lamfers then suffered brain damage that caused paralysis on her left side, impacted her vision and led to hallucinations.
Her condition only began to improve after two weeks and she was moved to a rehabilitation hospital on September 1 before being allowed home on September 9.
She then continued with physical, speech, occupational and language therapy. Her family has now filed a lawsuit against the restaurant company and is looking to recoup medical fees.
‘As a result of her STEC infection, Aspen has sustained permanent injuries and life-changing medical conditions,‘ the legal filing states.
It estimates that $500,000 was used for past medical bills, they will incur $1.6million in future medical expenses and will lose around $5million in future earning capacity.
‘Aspen’s life has been forever changed because of this blatant disregard for the health and safety of the public,’ the family attorney, Tom Worsfold, told McClatchy News in a statement.
The family’s lawyer said medical staff ‘almost found it to be a miracle she survived’.
‘She was that close to dying. Her parents try to balance being thankful that Aspen is doing as well as she is now, with all of the challenges she still faces,’ he told MLive.com.
‘If you look at those health department reports and just the hygiene and food safety practices by employees in that restaurant, you’re almost guaranteed there to be cross contamination.’
At one point, Aspen became nonverbal, but not before asking a question, the lawsuit said. “Why am I so sick? Why? And it’s so bad!” she said, according to the court document.
Meritage to date has declined to resolve the case before litigation and now has 28 days to respond to the lawsuit.
The Wendy’s restaurant that Lamfers visited had received two bad health inspections that found significant Michigan Food Law violations in that same summer.
There was found to be moldy and spoiled food, incorrect hand hygiene, food stored at unsafe temperatures and a dirty store ‘at an excessive end of the spectrum’, Ottawa County health records state.
An inspection on July 27, 2022 found 17 health and food code violations against the fast food outlet which included sanitizing solution which was too diluted be effective, undated produce and cutting boards left dirty from the previous day.
‘Due to excessive violations, employees not trained on completing food safety related tasks such as date marking, wash/rinse/sanitizing food contact surfaces, and discarding food that is no longer safe and is adulterated,’ the report stated.
‘Cleaning not occurring at the establishment at a frequency to guarantee any cleanliness for staff and guests.’
The restaurant was temporarily closed to re-train staff on food and safety and deal with issues highlighted in the report.
It was then reopened on August 1, 2022 and was serving customers including Lamfers. Around the same time, the University of Michigan Health West Hospital allegedly reported an increase in hospitalization from E. coli.
The Lamfers family lawsuit claims the hospital found a link between the infections and the Wendy’s restaurant the dailymail reports.
The next health inspection at the store found 12 more violations including improper hand washing, staff not changing gloves after contamination and raw beef stored at at potentially hazardous temperatures.
‘After being warned they completely disregarded it and continued business as usual and that’s what got Aspen sick,’ attorney Worsfold said.
‘My heart just breaks for Aspen and her parents.
‘This is permanent brain damage and she’s coping with and dealing with it, but it’s just the loss of potential – it’s heartbreaking, it’s devastating.’
The Wendy’s store in Jenison has significantly improved in its latest review with just two violations which were corrected on-site.
There are five Michigan lawsuits against Meritage linked with illness from E.coli in the summer of 2022 due to lettuce.
A spokesman for the company said: ‘We take the health and safety of our customers very seriously.
‘We deny any wrongdoing or failure of our food safety practices in these cases. We cannot provide further comment in light of the open litigation.’
Jenison is about a 10-mile drive southwest from Grand Rapids.
