Do you want a lawsuit with that?
A cheesed-off customer impacted by the deadly E.coli outbreak linked to McDonald’s Quarter Pounder hamburgers is taking supersized legal action.
Clarissa DeBock told reporters she didn’t notice anything wrong with her meal while dining with her fiancé at their local Golden Arches in North Platte, Nebraska, last month.
But five days later, she began to suffer from abdominal cramps, diarrhea and nausea, with her symptoms becoming so severe on Sept. 25 that she rushed herself to the hospital.
“I could just tell that something was off by the cramps, just because they were so bad,” she revealed to NBC News. “You get cramps with the flu and stuff, but it was different.”
Tests revealed that she was infected with E.coli strain O157:H7 — the same one connected to the recent outbreak.
The 33-year-old receptionist at a surgical center chalks her illness up to the bacterial burger from the fast food giant.
“It’s just scary, I guess, just because you trust them as a fast food place. You’re putting your trust in them to provide safe food,” she said.
In an updated Food Safety Alert from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention as of Oct. 25, there have now been 75 cases of E.coli connected to the outbreak, 26 of those cases being new. There have also been 22 reported hospitalizations and 1 death across 13 states.
It’s believed that the outbreak stemmed from the raw onions used in the quarter pounders from one of their suppliers, Taylor Farms — but authorities haven’t ruled out the burgers, according to reports.
The company — as well as other companies such as Taco Bell, KFC and Pizza Hut — have removed onions from restaurants as officials investigate.
DeBock reportedly filed suit against McDonald’s on Thursday, asking for compensation due to lost wages, medical bills, and physical and emotional suffering.
She’s thought to be the second person to sue the fast-food chain in connection to the outbreak — a Colorado man beat her to the punch earlier this week.
Both plaintiffs are being represented by Ron Simon, managing partner of Ron Simon & Associates, a food safety law firm, who told NBC that he is representing 15 people in total who say their illnesses are connected to the outbreak, though only the two suits have been filed.
Simon claimed that one client developed sepsis and was in the hospital for over a week.
“When you go to a restaurant, you are trusting that the restaurant did everything they could do to make you safe, but in this case, McDonald’s breached that trust,” Simon said. “I suspect it’s going to take a long time before they get it back.”
The Post has reached out to McDonald’s and Simon & Associates for further comment.
In the meantime, McDonald’s pulled their Quarter Pounders at about 20% of its US locations.
Stores in Colorado, Kansas, Utah, Wyoming, and portions of Idaho, Iowa, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New Mexico, and Oklahoma have temporarily stopped using their current supply of slivered onions and beef patties, according to the CDC.
Joe Erlinger, president of McDonald’s USA, told Today that it’s still safe to eat at the beloved fast-food chain.
“Food safety is our top priority at McDonald’s,” he said. “What’s important today is that we’ve taken the action to protect the American public and promote public health.”
