Dancer left paralyzed by contaminated hamburger
by: David Gutierrez
Twenty-two-year-old Stephanie Smith first became sick three years ago, after eating a hamburger contaminated with E. coli. Her illness progressed from simple food poisoning into constant seizures, and doctors were forced to put her into an induced coma for three months. She had suffered so much brain and kidney damage that she had to be kept alive on a ventilator and dialysis.
Smith stayed in the hospital for nine months and has undergone two years of rehabilitative therapy since then. Even so, she still requires constant care and can only move around by wheelchair.
"I have handled food borne illness cases since the Jack in the Box outbreak nearly seventeen years ago, and I have never seen someone so severely injured survive," Smith's attorney Bill Marler said. "She has lost the ability to walk, to dance, to have a family, to work or care for herself. I don't think it's possible to adequately convey in a sentence or two the massive challenges Stephanie has faced and continues to face."
Smith's medical bills to date add up to more than $2 million. When the hamburger that made her ill was traced back to Cargill, she approached the company for financial assistance. A Cargill representative claims that the company has "advanced" her funds, but Smith and the company have been unable to reach a mediated settlement to her claim.
A front-page New York Times story about Smith in October sparked U.S. Rep. Rosa DeLaura, chair of the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Agriculture, to demand that the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) make big slaughterhouses more accountable for the safety of their meat.
"I am writing to strongly urge the [USDA] and Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) to investigate the disturbing allegations that were revealed in [the] New York Times article about the beef inspection process," she wrote in a letter to Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack.
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