Paul K. Downes - Press

Minn. Family Sues Cargill After Daughter Sickened

KSTP.com, December 2008
Rachel Remele & Nicole Muehlhausen

A Minnesota family has filed a federal lawsuit against Cargill, claiming their daughter got E.coli poisoning from one of the company's beef patties that were later recalled.

The Hemmingson family, of Mahtomedi, says their daughter, Ruth, spent a month at St. Paul Children's Hospital. Ruth's parents say her organs began shutting down, but Ruth recovered. "I've never felt the way that I did in the hospital," Ruth told 5 EYEWITNESS NEWS Tuesday night in her first interview. "And it scared me."

The family's current medical bills and future medical needs are expected to top $4 million dollars, according to the lawsuit. The company and the family could not agree on a settlement.

"You kind of stand there with your hands up in the air: 'Somebody help us and take responsibility,'" Ruth's father, Art, said. "And that's what we're asking Cargill to do - is take responsiblity for what they've done."

Ruth's mother, Leah, told us, "she's the only nine year-old I know who has a burial site. I mean, that's how serious it got." The girl, who was nine-years-old at the time of her illness, is among four Minnesota children who got sick after eating American Chefs brand frozen beef patties.

The Minnesota company recalled 845,000 pounds of American Chefs frozen patties that could have been contaminated with E.coli in October 2007.