Allergic Reaction from Restaurant

[sureynot]

What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? Ohio
My husband is allergic to poultry. He ordered a sandwich from a restaurant that listed the ingredients as ham, salami, pepperoni and mozzarella. We have ordered from this restaurant several times.

He had an allergic reaction while eating. I called immediately and asked if they had used turkey ham rather than ham. They told me there was no turkey in the entire store. I told them my husband was having an allergic reaction and I needed to know what was in the food he had eaten. After almost 14 minutes, they finally admitted the sandwich was made with both turkey ham and turkey salami.

My husband had taken 2 Benadryl while I was on the phone. Normally, if he accidentally comes into contact with poultry, he takes 1 or 2 Benadryl and he is fine. This time, he continued to become more ill.

I had to take him to the ER, where he was treated for the allergic reaction.

We would like them to pay the medical bills and damages (pain and suffering or whatever the correct term is).

Do we have a case?

[ecmst12]

It is absolutely reasonable for you to expect the restaurant to pay the medical bills caused by their negligence in mislabeling ingredients.

[FlyingRon]

Salami can legitimately have poultry in it.
Ham should not.
I agree with ecmst.

Your husband might want to consider for his self-preservation in the future seeing if he can eat only a small quantity of potentially suspect foods to see if he gets a mild reaction. My mother can put a little bit of suspect stuff on her lips to see if it garners a reaction (she's allergic to four different things).

[Zigner]

http://www.jennieo.com/products/TurkeyHamandPastrami/default.aspx

Perhaps your hubby can confirm in the future...

[sureynot]

Thank you for your responses.

He has been allergic to poultry all his life, and we ask about ingredients or inform servers of his allergy in restaurants, even asking to make sure his food is prepared with poultry or near it or on the same surface. However, we did not have any reason to be concerned that "ham" was not really ham. That has never happened to him before.

He ate quite of bit of it, and we kept the rest in the freezer. We also have the menu, which, as of yesterday, is still the same online.

We also didn't see any reason to ask about ingredients since they were listed on the menu.

He can touch an item to his lips and see if he has a reaction. He just didn't see any reason to do so in this case!

They also could have been more helpful by telling me the truth when I called them, rather than lying to me, hassling me and keeping me on the phone when I should have been taking him to the ER sooner.

Do you think he is entitled to anything beyond the medical bills?

[Antigone*of*Greece]

Originally Posted by sureynot

Thank you for your responses.

He has been allergic to poultry all his life, and we ask about ingredients or inform servers of his allergy in restaurants, even asking to make sure his food is prepared with poultry or near it or on the same surface. However, we did not have any reason to be concerned that "ham" was not really ham. That has never happened to him before.

He ate quite of bit of it, and we kept the rest in the freezer. We also have the menu, which, as of yesterday, is still the same online.

We also didn't see any reason to ask about ingredients since they were listed on the menu.

He can touch an item to his lips and see if he has a reaction. He just didn't see any reason to do so in this case!

They also could have been more helpful by telling me the truth when I called them, rather than lying to me, hassling me and keeping me on the phone when I should have been taking him to the ER sooner.

Do you think he is entitled to anything beyond the medical bills?

I do think you should get the medical bills paid, but I don't think you hit the law-suit-lotto. The restaurant did nothing malicious.

[ecmst12]

Not unless he suffered some permanent damage from the reaction.

[ciasha]

Originally Posted by sureynot

What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? Ohio
My husband is allergic to poultry. He ordered a sandwich from a restaurant that listed the ingredients as ham, salami, pepperoni and mozzarella. We have ordered from this restaurant several times.

He had an allergic reaction while eating. I called immediately and asked if they had used turkey ham rather than ham. They told me there was no turkey in the entire store. I told them my husband was having an allergic reaction and I needed to know what was in the food he had eaten. After almost 14 minutes, they finally admitted the sandwich was made with both turkey ham and turkey salami.

My husband had taken 2 Benadryl while I was on the phone. Normally, if he accidentally comes into contact with poultry, he takes 1 or 2 Benadryl and he is fine. This time, he continued to become more ill.

I had to take him to the ER, where he was treated for the allergic reaction.

We would like them to pay the medical bills and damages (pain and suffering or whatever the correct term is).

Do we have a case?

My daughter is severly allergic to tree nuts and we went to a resturant and the waitress wanted her to have a sugar cookie, we said no thanks because not sure if it was made with almond extract. So when we went to the counter I asked the cashier if they had any cookies made without tree nuts, they said yes that the choc chip cookies would be ok. So she put one in a little sack and handed it to my 6 yr old daughter who also asked,does this have nuts in it, the gal said no it doesn't. Well about 10 mins my daughter gave me the cookie on the way home and said she didn't feel well and handed me the cookie, I took a bite and omg it had walnuts in it! I could hear her starting to wheeze and we pulled over and gave benedryl and by the time we made it home she was vomiting in the bathroom. I didnt know at that time that she should have gone tothe er after her medicine but luckily she is ok. I settled for a small $600 to basically tell the company to better train their employees are at least provide labels of some sort.

[justalayman]

He has been allergic to poultry all his life, and we ask about ingredients or inform servers of his allergy in restaurants, even asking to make sure his food is prepared with poultry or near it or on the same surface. However, we did not have any reason to be concerned that "ham" was not really ham. That has never happened to him before.

but as Ron stated, salami can include poultry as a typical ingredient. Granted, the ham should have been ham but due to the salami could have bird, unless you specifically asked if any of the meats contained bird, I believe you are fighting a losing cause.

He ate quite of bit of it, and we kept the rest in the freezer. We also have the menu, which, as of yesterday, is still the same online.

and salami can have bird in it legitimately.salami is a type of sausage (grind and seasonings) as much as it is specific meats (at least nowadays).

We also didn't see any reason to ask about ingredients since they were listed on the menu.

Ah, so you didn't ask. Like I said, salami can include bird.

He can touch an item to his lips and see if he has a reaction. He just didn't see any reason to do so in this case!

again, salami= possible bird

They also could have been more helpful by telling me the truth when I called them, rather than lying to me, hassling me and keeping me on the phone when I should have been taking him to the ER sooner.

maybe the person you spoke with didn't know. He may have seen "ham" and "salami" in large letters and when it is made with bird, that is often relegated to tiny tiny type. Not really trying to excuse his mistake, merely giving a reason. I would presume you were quite panicked and he may have realized this and became panicked resulting in overlooking the small type.

Do you think he is entitled to anything beyond the medical bills?

No. Three reasons;

1. salami can legitimately have bird in it
2. you did not ask nor mention the allergy
3. anything in the kitchen can conceivably come into contact with poultry. They may use the same cutter to cut the meats. It is just like the peanut allergy thing we have today. You will often read : warning; peanuts or peanut products are processed in this building (or whatever). We cannot guarantee there has been no contact with peanuts or peanut products.

Apparently your husband will have to deal with bird with the same thoughts in mind. I hope things turn out well. I can only imagine having to deal with something such as this.

[sureynot]

Thanks, everyone.

Even if salami can contain poultry, ham should not! My husband has been allergic to poultry all his life. He has never had an issue with salami before. And when they finally told me the ingredients to the sandwich, they said it was Turkey ham and turkey salami.

There isn't anything on their menu that lists poultry; otherwise we would have told them about the allergy.

Now we are being even more cautious than usual.