Mom Dies After Eating Cookie Dough Contaminated With E. Coli
Rivera in a video recorded in 2010.
Linda Rivera died in July 2013 at the age of 61, four years after she ate a few spoonfuls of raw cookie dough that was later recalled for traces of the dangerous strain of E. coli. At first, her kidneys stopped functioning and she went into septic shock. Over the years, she became sicker as more organs failed and she was in and out of the hospital for operations.
Via ABC:
“There were moments of hope — and of despair,” Simpson, 22, said today. “She fought very hard. We knew she didn’t want to give up.”
Rivera died in July 2013 from medical complications that appeared to stem from the E. coli she was infected with years earlier, her son said.
“Eventually, her body just couldn’t take it,” said Bill Marler, Rivera’s friend and the attorney who handled her claim against Nestle, which manufactured the contaminated cookie dough in 2009.
“She was probably the most severely injured E. coli victim I have ever seen,” he added. “She suffered brain injury. She had quite a large section of her large intestines removed. She suffered so many infections while hospitalized it was incredible. She was on a ventilator for several months in a coma. She was a very sick lady.”
Rivera’s claim against the company was settled for an undisclosed amount, Marler said.
Nestle shut down the Danville, Virginia, plant that made their prepackaged Toll House cookie dough and recalled 3.6million packages of their product – costing $30 to $50 million.
In a statement, Nestle said, “The fact that our product was implicated in Linda Rivera’s 2009 illness and tragic passing was obviously of grave concern to all of us at Nestle. Since then, we have implemented more stringent testing and inspection of raw materials and finished product to ensure the product meets our high quality standards. In addition, we have switched to using heat-treated flour to further enhance safety. We continue to emphasize that the cookie dough should be consumed only after baking and not eaten raw.”
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