SAN DIEGO — Yalda Bahar says it “breaks her heart” to have watched her son lying in a hospital bed after being diagnosed with E. coli.
Bahar believes her 7-year old was one of the first customers to contract E. coli amid an outbreak at the Miguel’s Cocina location in 4S Ranch.
She says they ate at the restaurant on October 8th. On October 14th, her son was rushed to the hospital after she noticed his stool was bloody.
“I’ve never seen him with that much pain. It was terrible,” said Bahar.
According to records Bahar shared with ABC 10News, her son was diagnosed with Shiga toxin-producing Escherichia coli O157 infection.
On Tuesday, San Diego County announced 13 confirmed or probable cases of that strain of E. coli linked to the restaurant.
The ages of those infected range from 6 to 87-years old.
Customers who became ill ate there “from Oct. 6 to Oct. 18 and had symptoms from Oct. 13 to Oct. 19.”, according to the county’s release.
Miguel’s Cocina voluntarily closed temporarily.
Now, some parents whose children got sick say they spent thousands on medical bills as a result of the outbreak.
“Typically in any type of food poisoning case, you’re looking at two potential type of claims. The first being negligence against the restaurant or one of the staffers and the other would be product liability,” said Ben Coughlan, a lawyer and partner at Coughlan and Vinel, LLP.
Coghlan has represented similar cases in the past.
He says depending on what the county’s investigation discovers, some people who contracted E. coli could be entitled to damages.
“Their medical bills, any lost wages they had, it also includes of course pain and suffering and emotional distress from what they’ve gone through,” said Coughlan.
The county is continuing to investigate the exact cause of the outbreak and asks anyone with ongoing symptoms starting on or after October 6 to see a doctor, who will contact the health department if needed.
Symptoms include diarrhea, or diarrhea that is accompanied by a fever higher than 102˚F, or blood in the stool, or so much vomiting that you cannot keep liquids down and you pass very little urine.
