The family of an 11-year-old Michigan girl claimed “disgusting” Wendy’s conditions severely infected their daughter with an E. coli-related disease in a new $20 million lawsuit, according to a report.
Aspen Lamfers had stopped at an Ottawa County Wendy’s on Aug. 1, 2022, ordering a hamburger, chicken nuggets and fries after softball practice, the family’s attorney, Tom Worsfold, told WOOD TV.
But the young girl landed in the hospital three days later, fighting for her life after her quick meal.
Aspen was rushed to the emergency room with complaints of diarrhea, abdominal cramps, and blood in her stool.
Doctors quickly found the 11-year-old was suffering from an E. coli infection, which morphed into hemolytic uremic syndrome — a rare but deadly disease that attacks the kidneys and forms blood clots.
Aspen was moved to the Helen DeVos Children’s Hospital, but the infection progressed and “attacked her pancreas and her brain,” Worsfold explained — adding that her illness caused her to go unconscious at times and even hallucinate.
“She had significant brain swelling, suffering seizures while in the hospital, she had left-sided paralysis,” Worsfold said.
Aside from the attack on her brain, Aspen needed daily dialysis for her kidney issues.
After nearly three agonizing weeks of battling the deadly disease in the hospital, Aspen was sent to a rehab clinic for a week and then finally sent home.
“It’s almost a miracle she survived,” Worsfold said.
The Lamfers family has filed a $20 million lawsuit against Meritage Hospitality Group — the owners of the Wendy’s from which they claim their daughter contracted the deadly disease — on April 4.
While the attorney said the family was “thankful” their daughter “didn’t pass,” the 11-year-old is still dealing with high blood pressure, diabetes, weakness — and worst of all, brain damage that has affected her ability to learn.
Worsfold explained that “the spring before she got sick, she placed as a fifth-grader in the sixth-grade level of reading.”
“One year later, after she got sick, as a sixth-grader she was now reading at a fourth-grade level,” he told the outlet.
Worsfold explained that the Ottawa County Wendy’s owned by the group had violated multiple Michigan food laws that summer and, unbeknownst to the family, had only reopened the day their daughter ate there.
On July 27, 2022, Ottawa County food inspectors stopped at the fast food joint, where they found “gross, unsanitary conditions throughout” the Wendy’s and 17 health and food code violations.
The inspectors noted they found moldy and spoiled food that had not been thrown out and was left to decay unrefrigerated in the summer heat overnight, according to health records obtained by the outlet.
Investigators found filthy cutting boards and food-slicing stations used to prepare customers’ food.
Leaking water pooled throughout the building, some flowing over electrical areas when they were inspecting. Mold and mildew were also found growing throughout the restaurant and food-prepping stations.
One inspector even noted that the Wendy’s was “dirty at an excessive end of the spectrum.”
“Imminent health hazards demand immediate corrections, such as closure and fixing health hazards observed,” the inspectors wrote. “Immediate health risks may get the staff and public sick.”
Worst of all, they were not displaying the store’s food license.
“It was really disgusting, to be quite frank,” Worsfold told the outlet.
The Wendy’s reopened on Aug. 1 after staff were given lessons on food safety practices and the restaurant fixed the water leaks, according to health records.
However, just a few days after it reopened, investigators found 12 more violations, including raw beef stored at potentially hazardous temperatures, standing water with dead pests around the chili area, and the kitchen floors covered in black mold-like debris, according to the inspection report.
“Many of the same problem areas were present with employees not changing gloves, not washing their hands, one of the hand washing sinks wasn’t stocked properly,” Worsfold told the outlet.
The restaurant has since improved conditions since its temporary closure, according to the outlet.
“We take the health and safety of our customers very seriously. We deny any wrongdoing or failure of our food safety practices in this case. We cannot provide further comment in light of the open litigation,” Meritage Hospitality Group said in a statement to WZZM.
This month, several other Michigan residents have sued Meritage Hospitality Group — which owns more than 380 Wendy’s in 16 states — claiming they became sick from contaminated lettuce at Wendy’s restaurants during the E. coli outbreak in 2022.
While Worsfold said Aspen didn’t have any lettuce before she became sick, he and the family believe her illness came from cross-contamination.
“It’s really the only explanation that caused her to contract this infection,” Worsfold explained.
