Laurence Dollimore
SHE was expecting twins.
And at 21 weeks, she was in the latter half of her pregnancy.
But after consuming meat infected with listeria in Sevilla, she was rushed to hospital where she was told she would have to abort her pregnancy via stillbirth.
Now, the Patient Advocate association is taking the meat company, Sevilla city council and the Junta to court on her behalf.
In a denuncia filed in the regional capital yesterday, it details how the mother and father both stayed in a town five kilometres from Pilas, the Sevilla town ‘where the first contagion of listeriosis’ began with the La Mecha meat product.
The mother had consumed infected meatloaf during Holy Week at the end of April.
The Sevillano couple immediately headed to Madrid, where they now live, but began feeling extremely unwell, so much so that the mother ‘could not move’.
On May 2 the mother ‘was forced to go to the emergency room’ of a hospital in Pozuelo de Alarcon ‘with a strong pain throughout the body.’
Several hours after arriving at the hospital, gynecologists informed the couple that she had suffered a ‘very strong’ infection and ‘was in serious danger.’
They told her that if she did not have an abortion she would die, according to the denuncia.
The woman then had to endure eight hours of childbirth ‘to remove the two dead children and, with them, the infection that was killing her,’ the complaint read.
Medical reports were included in the complaint to back up the claims.
Magrudis SL was named as the ‘origin of the massive contagion’ which has now infected some 200 people in Spain.
Hence the company is the main target of the denuncia, but also included is Comercial Martinez Leon, the distributor of shredded meat for the company, ‘which may also be liable and guilty of crimes against public health.’
Likewise, the complaint is also directed against the City Council of Sevilla and the Junta de Andalucia for ‘failing in their duties of being responsible for prevention, health and food inspections, and health analysis and controls.’
It also denounced the delay in issuing a health alert and delaying the withdrawal of food products.
‘Any company, person or entity that may be responsible for aiding the outbreak’ was also named.
The complaint is filed for alleged ‘crimes against public health, minor injuries, injuries due to imprudence, reckless homicide and injuries to the fetus or abortions due to recklessness of the Criminal Code and any other that may arise.’
