Mother sues Papa Murphy’s, says son got E. coli from salad

A mother is suing the “take and bake” pizza chain Papa Murphy’s, claiming her son contracted E. coli after eating a salad from one of the company’s stores.

Taylor Fitzgerald claims her son ate a salad with E. coli-contaminated romaine lettuce from Yuma at a Papa Murphy’s in Rocklin, California — a city 22 miles northeast of Sacramento.

They visited the restaurant around April 10, according to the lawsuit, which was filed in a U.S. District Court in California on Friday. That was around the same time public health officials first warned of the outbreak.

Court records say the son, referred to as “R.B.” in court documents, start- ed feeling ill after a couple of days with a fever, bloody diarrhea and “agonizing” abdominal cramps. He was admitted to Sutter General Hospital in Sacramento four days after eating the salad, where he stayed for 16 days.

Court documents don’t disclose the boy’s age. Documents say a stool sample confirmed the boy contracted E. coli.

Court records show the boy also developed “hemolytic uremic syndrome” or HUS, a disease that sometimes occurs after exposure to E. coli. The disease destroys red blood cells, the remnants of which can clog the kidney’s filtering system, sometimes causing lifethreatening kidney failure, according to the Mayo Clinic website.