Salmonella Victims Should Come First
MEDINA, Ohio – I represent the families of three elderly women who died as a result of complications from Salmonella contracted from peanut butter produced by Peanut Corporation of America (PCA).
These blameless seniors managed to survive all the vagaries of age, disease and trauma only to succumb to an agonizing and irreversible shut down of their vital organs occasioned by consumption of contaminated peanut products.
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PCA, the company at the heart of this national tragedy, has already sought protection from its creditors under federal bankruptcy laws. The company’s president, Stewart Parnell, has invoked his right against self-incrimination in light of the criminal charges that will likely follow.
The company’s insurer, Hartford, commenced litigation seeking to protect its rights by claiming its multi-million dollar policy does not apply to the losses suffered by my clients and the hundreds, if not thousands, of other victims of this outbreak. Everybody’s rights are being protected, it seems, except those of the victims who suffered the greatest losses of all: Their health and in some cases, their lives.
This isn’t right. Take the case of Nellie Napier, an Ohio woman who lived in a nursing home and died on January 26, infected with Salmonella.
Abandoned by her husband, this mother of five children under the age of 18 went to work at a local company in 1967 earning less than a dollar per hour. She retired from the same company 23 years later never having made much money. Her “pension” was less than $100 per month, but she never once accepted government assistance.
Until Nellie entered an assisted living facility and later a nursing home, she lived for thirteen years with one of her children. An Akron Beacon Journal newspaper account of her life and death by Salmonella carried the headline: “Cleveland Indians fan and hero to her children, not just Salmonella victim.”
What about the rights of the Nellie Napiers of this country? Who’s protecting them?
Food consumers have a sacred pact with the purveyors and regulators of food products: We will buy from you, but you must protect us from the invisible pathogens that we are powerless to detect.
Stewart Parnell of PCA made millions in the peanut business. He was a respected member of the peanut producing community. In that respect, he is no different than Bernard Madoff — a trust abuser who invoked his rights as his customers lament the lack of theirs. The difference is that Madoff’s customers only lost money. Nellie Napier never had much and now she’s dead.
To contact attorney Fred Pritzker, please call 1-888-377-8900 (toll free), email Fred at fhp@prtizkerlaw.com or submit our free Salmonella consultation form
Meet Nellie Napier
The ninth person in the United States to die in the peanut butter Salmonella outbreak was an 80-year-old mother of six children who she raised on her own as low-wage factory worker in Ohio.
She was a devoted Cleveland Indians fan and a loving grandmother to 13 grandchildren and 11 great-grandchildren. Nellie Napier, 80, a long-time resident of Medina County, died January 26 from sepsis due to Salmonella. One of her five sons, Randy Napier, told the Akron Beacon Journal that his mother deserves to be known by name — not solely as the ninth victim of a deadly Salmonella outbreak.
She contracted her infection as a resident of a long-term care facility, where she regularly ate peanut butter to regulate her blood sugar level.
The family chose Fred Pritzker of national food safety law firm PritzkerOlsen Attorneys to represent them against Peanut Corporation of America, the maker of the peanut butter and the company that federal authorities have identified as the cause of the outbreak. Pritzker’s other clients in the outbreak include the families of two Minnesota women who also died after eating peanut butter in assisted living centers.
Randy Napier told the Beacon Journal that his family will fight for new food safety laws to protect American families from adulterated products.
“She dedicated her life to raising us,” Napier said. “She was very well liked by everyone she met and would not harm a flea. She was very quiet to the point of being shy, but she took care of us and kept us together.”
