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Ninth Salmonella Victim Was a Dedicated Mom

By PritzkerLaw

Randy Napier will never forget the strife his mother went through to raise six children on her own -- once working a factory job for 98 cents an hour in the 1960s to hold things together. She was too proud to accept government assistance.

"She dedicated her life to raising us,'' Napier told the Akron Beacon Journal of Ohio.

Meet Nellie Napier, 80, who died January 26 from sepsis due to Salmonella poisoning. Her family doesn't want her to be known solely as the ninth person to die in a Salmonella outbreak that has sickened more than 640 people in 44 states. She became the second person in Ohio to die in the outbreak.

Nellie Napier, a long-time resident of Medina County, Ohio, was a devoted Cleveland Indians fan and a loving grandmother to 13 grandchildren and 11 great-grandchildren. 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 in a peanut butter wrongful death action 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 -- like other PritzkerOlsen clients -- are outraged and will fight for new food safety laws to protect American families from adulterated products.

“She was very well liked by everyone she met and would not harm a flea,'' Randy Napier said. "She was very quiet to the point of being shy, but she took care of us and kept us together.” 

Full post as published by Food Poisoning Law Blog on February 15, 2009 (boomark / email).