E. coli lawsuit filed for Selah boy

The first lawsuit in Washington over last month's E. coli meat contamination has been filed.

The suit, against JBS Swift & Company, was filed Thursday on behalf of a 16-month-old Selah boy who was hospitalized after eating meat products his mother bought at Costco in Union Gap.

Swift announced a voluntary recall on June 24th, after the Centers for Disease Control found a link between the company's meat products and illnesses caused by E. coli.

The CDC confirmed at least 23 people in nine states have been sickened with a strain of E. coli with a particular genetic fingerprint.

The boy's E. coli matches that fingerprint, according to the lawsuit, which was filed by the Seattle firm Marler Clark. It is the second lawsuit over the recent E. coli outbreak.

On June 19, the boy was rushed to the emergency room "writhing in pain" with severe gastrointestinal symptoms, the lawsuit said. He wound up spending nearly three weeks in the hospital and suffered renal failure; his kidneys are now functioning at 30 percent of normal, according to the lawsuit.

Times staff and news services