A Frugals customer died of Listeria complications. Now his family is suing
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Listeria outbreak
Between Feb. 27 and July 22, 2023, six customers at a Tacoma restaurant developed severe illness due to infection with Listeria. Three of them died. Follow all of the TNT’s coverage here.
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A deadly food-borne illness outbreak linked to a local burger chain has resulted in a new complaint filed in Pierce County Superior Court.
The case was filed Monday by a Seattle attorney representing the family of the late Charles Roberson, 73, of Yelm.
Initial listeriosis cases were first reported in July in Western Washington in an outbreak that eventually sickened six in Pierce and Thurston counties and killed three of the six. Roberson is the first to be publicly named.
The illness is an infection caused by Listeria bacteria, which can contaminate food.
The lawsuit contends that Roberson “consumed a Listeria-contaminated milkshake sold at the Frugals restaurant located at 10727 Pacific Ave. S. in Tacoma, Pierce County,” and later died.
According to the filing, “During March and April 2023, Mr. Roberson consumed one or more ice cream shakes at Frugals in Tacoma, Washington. In early May 2023, Mr. Roberson was hospitalized at Providence St. Peters in Olympia due to neck and arm numbness and pain. Surgery was performed on May 9, and he was released to Orchard Park Rehabilitation for recovery and for asymptomatic COVID-19.”
At the rehab center, Roberson’s condition worsened, and he was later sent to St. Joseph Medical Center in Tacoma, where, according to the case filing, “he died of Listeria complications.”
On Aug. 18, DOH and the Tacoma-Pierce County Health Department announced that there had been a breakthrough in the investigation of the oubreak.
DOH said two of the people who came down with illnesses from Listeria bacteria (listeriosis) consumed milkshakes from Frugals restaurant at 10727 Pacific Ave. S.
“Genetic fingerprinting (whole genome sequencing) of the bacteria indicated that the same food was likely responsible for making all six people sick,” the health department said.
Roberson tested positive for the bacteria, the court filing states, and his illness as determined by the state Department of Health, was a “match” to others sickened “and to ice cream products found at the Frugals site in Tacoma.”
Frugals told The News Tribune in an emailed statement on Tuesday that “We received a copy of the complaint late last night and are still in process of reviewing.”
It added: “We are heartbroken and deeply regret any harm our actions could have caused. Food and customer safety has always been our highest priority. We will continue to fully cooperate with and support this ongoing investigation. We are committed to taking any actions necessary to prevent anything like this from happening ever again.”
The case
Attorney William Marler is representing Roberson’s family in the case, and noted he has already heard from at least two other possibly affected customers.
Marler is a personal injury and products liability attorney. In 1993, he represented Brianne Kiner, a child survivor of the Jack in the Box E. coli outbreak at that time.
A book about the Jack in the Box outbreak was the basis of a new Netflix documentary that debuted this month, “Poisoned: The Dirty Truth About Your Food.” The Netflix production features Marler among other food safety advocates.
His firm Marler Clark The Food Safety Law Firm has its own foodborne epidemiologist, and an updated log of dairy/ice cream-related illness outbreaks spanning the nation was posted Aug. 18 on the firm’s blog, with Frugals as the latest addition to the list.
In the Roberson case, initial symptoms seemed to point doctors to something possibly neurological upon his hospitalization at Providence. Follow-up testing at St. Joe’s revealed Listeria and the link to Frugals, Marler noted.
“It’s unclear whether or not what he experienced that made him have surgery was actually a Listeria infection, or something else,” Marler said. “But we know he had a Listeria infection that is a whole genome sequence matched to the outbreak.”
Marler said customers need to pay attention to any symptoms that could be Listeria-related.
“If people are having headaches, neck aches, arm pain, you know, go directly to the ER and get on antibiotics ASAP,” he said.
DOH, in its announcement, said that “Between February 27 and July 22, 2023, six Washington residents (five from Pierce County and one from Thurston County) developed severe illness due to infection with Listeria bacteria (listeriosis). All six people had conditions which made their immune systems less able to fight disease.”
Investigation and recovery process
The outbreak investigation involved both DOH and TPCHD.
According to DOH, “Because milkshakes and ice cream have caused listeria outbreaks in the past, the Tacoma-Pierce County Health Department collected milkshake samples from the (Tacoma) restaurant on August 8. On August 18, all flavors of the milkshakes were found to be contaminated with the same strain of Listeria that caused the outbreak.”
Frugals discontinued use of its two milkshake machines at the site as of Aug. 8. DOH said Friday that the machines “will be kept out of service until the Tacoma-Pierce County Health Department determines they are free of Listeria contamination and no longer pose a danger to the public.”
Frugals, in a statement posted to its Instagram account and issued in a general news release Aug. 18, said that it not only halted milkshake sales at the Tacoma site, but at its other locations, with samples from those machines also to be tested “out of an abundance of caution.”
“Frugals will also undergo enhanced cleaning, safety and sanitization procedures across all product categories and at all store locations,” the statement added.
Frugals has locations in Auburn, Port Angeles and Spokane as well as in Montana.
The company website’s photo gallery this week still showed one of its locations in the past advertising blackberry and root beer shakes.
A sign outside the Tacoma site on Tuesday simply said, “SORRY NO SHAKES.”
TPCHD sent The News Tribune the list of what Frugals is required to work through before bringing back the machines for use:
- Provide a report from a third-party, private lab showing each machine’s internal parts have tested negative for listeria monocytogenes. TPCHD will review the report.
- Create cleaning and sanitizing steps and procedures following the manufacturer’s manual requirements for employees to follow. These will need to be available onsite.
- Create an itemized list of regularly ordered parts such as gaskets, hoses and brushes. Include how and where to order them from, so they can easily be replaced when required or needed.
- Outline the replacement schedule for each part.
- Provide a schedule for weekly emptying, cleaning, and sanitizing of the milkshake machines that is checked off by a manager.
- Provide a schedule for daily and weekly cleaning and sanitizing of the facility.
- Create a training manual outlining the cleaning process for all employees who work with the shake machines.
According to TPCHD, “Once these requirements have been met, we will conduct a site visit. We will then need to provide written approval in the form of an inspection report before Frugals can resume serving shakes.“
Marler, the Roberson family attorney, credited the work of both DOH and TPCHD in quickly finding the source, comparing it to other cases such as the Blue Bell Creameries Listeria case of a few years ago sickening 10 people in multiple states and leaving three of the individuals dead.
“It took a while for the CDC to tumble to the fact that all these people are connected,” he said. “It’s the beauty of having a really good health department and good health departments, county and city and state. The utilization of whole genome sequencing has made rapid connection of these outbreaks really quick.”
Marler told The News Tribune on Tuesday that the Frugals outbreak was sad “all the way around,” and that he had patronized Frugals as a customer in the past.
“It’s certainly a tragedy for the Roberson family and the other people who’ve died and a tragedy for the people who got sick. It also is a tragedy for the business and the employees. I get that. And it’s a cautionary tale. Clean that equipment and keep it clean, and you won’t have these problems.”
Illness warning signs
Listeria illness can initially manifest with fever and muscle aches, “sometimes preceded by diarrhea or other gastrointestinal symptoms,” according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Symptoms can occur up to 70 days after exposure. Those most at risk include “pregnant women and their newborns, older adults, and people with immune systems weakened by cancer, cancer treatments, or other serious conditions (like diabetes, kidney failure, liver disease, and HIV),” according to the CDC.
DOH said Friday that, “Persons who are high risk for invasive listeriosis infection (people aged 65 years or older, people with compromised immune systems and people who are pregnant) should contact their health care provider if they consumed milkshakes of any flavor from Frugals-Tacoma between May 29 and August 7, 2023” and develop any of the following symptoms:
▪ Fever
▪ Flu-like symptoms, such as muscle aches and fatigue
▪ Headache
▪ Stiff Neck
▪ Confusion
▪ Loss of balance
▪ Seizures
More information is available at DOH’s outbreak website.
The News Tribune archives contributed to this report.
This story was originally published August 23, 2023 at 8:00 AM.
