A month ago, Clarissa DeBock fell ill with abdominal cramps, diarrhea and nausea \u2014 but it wasn\u2019t the usual stomach bug. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
She had gone to lunch five days earlier with her fianc\u00e9 at their local McDonald\u2019s in North Platte, Nebraska. The Quarter Pounder she ate that day looked and tasted normal, she said. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
But gastrointestinal symptoms landed DeBock in the emergency room on Sept. 25, and she tested positive for a strain of E. coli called O157:H7 \u2014 the one connected to the outbreak the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention announced Tuesday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI could just tell that something was off by the cramps, just because they were so bad,\u201d she said. \u201cYou get cramps with the flu and stuff, but it was different.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The CDC\u2019s investigation into the E. coli outbreak<\/a> linked to Quarter Pounders has so far identified 49 cases across 10 states from Sept. 27 to Oct. 11. Ten people were hospitalized, and one died.<\/p>\n\n\n\n DeBock, 33, a receptionist at a surgical center, attributes her illness to the McDonald\u2019s meal. <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cIt\u2019s just scary, I guess, just because you trust them as a fast-food place,\u201d she said. \u201cYou\u2019re putting your trust in them to provide safe food.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n DeBock sued McDonald\u2019s on Thursday, seeking compensation for lost wages, medical bills and physical and emotional suffering.<\/p>\n\n\n\n It\u2019s the second lawsuit connected to the outbreak; a Colorado man sued on Wednesday. <\/p>\n\n\n\n A McDonald\u2019s spokesperson said Wednesday that slivered onions served on the Quarter Pounders were likely to have been responsible for the outbreak. On Thursday, the company said one of its suppliers, Taylor Farms, had provided slivered onions to locations associated with the outbreak<\/a>. Taylor Farms has initiated a recall of four raw onion products.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The plaintiffs in the two lawsuits are both represented by Ron Simon, managing partner of Ron Simon & Associates, a food safety law firm. Simon said he\u2019s representing 15 people in total \u2014 men and women ages 20 to 60 \u2014 who attribute their illnesses to the outbreak, though he hasn\u2019t yet filed lawsuits on behalf of the others. One client, he said, developed sepsis and was in the hospital for over a week.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWhen 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\u2019s breached that trust,\u201d Simon said. \u201cI suspect it\u2019s going to take a long time before they get it back.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n If raw onions are, indeed, the culprit behind the E. coli outbreak, it would be the first time they are known to have been contaminated with this particular strain. Past outbreaks have been linked to leafy greens, sprouts, beef and cheese made from unpasteurized milk.<\/p>\n\n\n\n McDonald\u2019s has paused the distribution of slivered onions<\/a> in the affected areas and temporarily removed the Quarter Pounder from affected restaurants. Joe Erlinger, president of McDonald\u2019s USA, told NBC\u2019s \u201cTODAY\u201d show on Wednesday that the company intends to regain people\u2019s confidence<\/a>, adding that it\u2019s still safe to eat at McDonald\u2019s restaurants.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cFood safety is our top priority at McDonald\u2019s,\u201d he said. \u201cWhat\u2019s important today is that we\u2019ve taken the action to protect the American public and promote public health.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Darin Detwiler, a professor of food regulatory policy at Northeastern University, said restaurants and fast-food chains are responsible for what they serve to customers, even if the contamination didn\u2019t happen on site. If the onions contained E. coli, he said, the contamination could have been identified by adequate testing on the journey from the farm to restaurants.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cMcDonald\u2019s can say that this problem was completely isolated to the onions, completely isolated to this farm, this distributor, but they can never say they have zero responsibility, because they should have tested it before it got to the franchise,\u201d Detwiler said. \u201cIt\u2019s their name on the product. It goes through their kitchen.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n DeBock has mostly recovered and is grateful that her son, Kai, didn\u2019t get sick, as well. He is nearly 2 years old, and DeBock said she usually shares her food with him but didn\u2019t in this case. Young children and older adults are particularly vulnerable to severe symptoms from E. coli. <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cIt\u2019s pretty terrifying to think about,\u201d she said. \u201cI was pretty miserable, so I don\u2019t know how his little body would have handled it.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n DeBock said she has been nervous to order food from any restaurants since her illness, especially with her son.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI don\u2019t know that I trust to eat out for a little while,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n