Worldwide fast food restaurant franchise Kentucky Fried Chicken was recently ordered to pay an Australian family more than $8 million after their daughter suffered paralysis and severe brain damage from eating a contaminated menu item.
The girl, 7 years old at the time, also suffered from septic shock and blood infection as the result of salmonella encephalopathy, a form of brain damage related to food poisoning, which she contracted after eating a chicken Twister wrap made at a KFC restaurant in Sydney, Australia, in 2005. Several of the girl’s family members also reported being made ill after eating at the restaurant, but their reactions were not as severe. The girl’s salmonella encephalopathy has caused serious impairment of her speech, cognition, and motor skills, as well as spastic quadriplegia. The Supreme Court in New South Wales awarded the money, equivalent to approximately 8 million Australian dollars plus legal expenses, after ruling that the restaurant’s chicken was contaminated through employee negligence. KFC has announced they will appeal this decision, but at this time the company’s legal representatives have not taken the necessary legal actions to do so.
I am deeply saddened to hear about such a severe trauma being inflicted on such a young child due to negligent safety practices. If you or someone you love has been made ill by a contaminated food product, please consider hiring the legal representation of a personal injury attorney in Ventura.