Outbreak News
E. coli lawsuit filed against Joplin daycare
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASESeptember 28, 2004
JOPLIN, MO—Marler Clark, the Seattle attorneys nationally recognized for the successful representation of E. coli victims, filed a lawsuit Tuesday on behalf of Patricia and Asa Wasden, the parents of Ian Wasden, a two-year-old boy who suffered from Hemolytic Uremic Syndrome (HUS) after contracting E. coli O157:H7 last June at Kid’s Korner daycare in Joplin. The lawsuit, which was filed in Jasper County Circuit Court, seeks damages related to Ian’s illness and subsequent hospitalization.
An E. coli outbreak was linked to Kid’s Korner after several children who attended the daycare facility fell ill with bacterial infections in May. Health officials instructed Kid’s Korner operators to notify the families of all children who attended the daycare in an effort to prevent more illnesses but, according to the complaint, the Wasdens never received word from the daycare. It was not June 1, the date that Ian Wasden fell ill with symptoms related to his E. coli infection, that Patricia and Asa Wasden learned about the outbreak at Kid’s Korner.
“After the first child attending Kid’s Korner tested positive for E. coli, the daycare operators should have notified all parents and taken extra precautions to ensure that no other children became ill,” said William Marler, managing partner of Marler Clark. “Instead, they continued to operate the daycare as if nothing was wrong, which probably led to dozens of illnesses that could have been prevented.”
Continue reading E. coli lawsuit filed against Joplin daycare on the Marler Clark website.
More on this outbreak: Kid's Korner Daycare E. coli Outbreak