“Salmonella is a really terrible Mother’s Day gift:" Second lawsuit filed over Salmonella outbreak

KENOSHA -- Another lawsuit has been filed against Los Corrales Enterprises, LLC, doing business as Supermercado Los Corrales on behalf of three members of the Silva family, who were all sickened with Salmonella after consuming tainted pork carnitas prepared and sold by the company.

Supermercado Los Corrales is based in Kenosha.

The Silvas are represented by Marler Clark, a law firm specializing in cases related to food safety. This is the second lawsuit filed by the firm.

The law firm says on the morning of May 10th, Oscar Silva of Milwaukee purchased pork carnitas at Supermercado Los Corrales to bring to his parents’ home in Kenosha to celebrate Mother’s Day. Oscar and his father, Martin, and his mother, Leticia, ate the carnitas at the family dinner.

The next day, Oscar and Leticia began to feel the first symptoms of their illness: nausea, diarrhea and abdominal cramps. Oscar also began vomiting and in the early hours of the morning on May 11th, he threw up blood and went to the nearest emergency room where he was diagnosed with food poisoning and treated with anti-nausea medication and intravenous fluids.

Meanwhile, Leticia was becoming increasingly ill. She developed a high fever and was suffering from increasingly severe diarrhea as well as intense chills and pain throughout her body.

Leticia’s husband and Oscar’s father, Martin, began to feel ill on May 11th, but brushed his discomfort aside to go to work. Soon, however, his symptoms—which included cramping, diarrhea and nausea—became so severe that he was forced to head home.

Over the next several days, the Silvas remained ill. Martin and Leticia sought emergency care on May 13th.

On May 18th, Leticia contacted the Kenosha County Division of Health to report her and her family’s illnesses. After testing, it was determined that they were the victims of Salmonella.

On May 21st, the Kenosha County Division of Health issued a “news flash” that announced an investigation related to “individuals with gastrointestinal illness and exposure to Supermercado Los Corrales.” 70 ill persons were identified. The ongoing investigation has also found that the source of the outbreak was pork carnitas purchased over May 9th and 10th from Supermercado Los Corrales.

“Salmonella is a really terrible Mother’s Day gift. Unfortunately, dozens of moms and other family members got just that and have been suffering ever since,” said Bill Marler, co-founder and partner with Marler Clark.

Kenosha County Division of Health officials gave Supermercado Los Corrales the green light to reopen their food preparation area on Wednesday, June 3rd.