“…(the hotel’s owner) settled complaints by two people in the outbreak…negotiations on the Stanley case deadlocked, prompting Falkenstein to file a lawsuit earlier this month in Multnomah County Circuit Court…
(since becoming ill) he has racked up nearly $14,000 in medical expenses, according to the lawsuit. He is seeking to recover those expenses plus at least $26,000 in noneconomic damages…”
According to a state outbreak investigation, the 83-year-old six-term commissioner from North Carolina was one of seven people sickened after breakfast that morning at Crowne Plaza Hotel in Northeast Portland. All of them ate eggs benedict. An eighth person, who ordered eggs benedict but had the hollandaise sauce on the side and didn’t consume it, felt fine. No one else got sick, pointing to the hollandaise sauce as the culprit.
But lab tests confirmed that Stanley — and another person hospitalized in the outbreak — were sickened by a strain of Staphylococcus aureus, a bacterium commonly found on the skin and in the noses of healthy people. Certain strains produce toxins that can spark quick and acute gastro-intestinal symptoms.
Dr. Mathieu Tourdjman, lead Oregon epidemiologist investigating the outbreak, said the sauce became toxic because it was not kept hot enough. Unlike many other pathogens, the toxins produced by Staph cannot be killed by cooking. The only way to prevent foodborne Staph infections is by thorough hand washing and proper cooking. Food safety advocates recommend keeping cooked food warm at 140 degrees Fahrenheit or more.
For more:Â http://www.oregonlive.com/portland/index.ssf/2012/06/portland_visitor_says_hotels_h.html
