Brookline Mother Sues Chipotle After Norovirus Outbreak
BROOKLINE (CBS) – A Brookline mother has filed a lawsuit against Chipotle after her 16-year-old son got sick from norovirus.
Andrea Dow says her son Alexander was one of the dozens of people who got sick after eating at the Chipotle in Cleveland Circle in Brighton.
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Alexander ate a burrito on December 4 and got sick two days later. He suffered nausea, diarrhea and vomiting and ended up at Boston Children's Hospital.
Seattle attorney Bill Marler is representing Dow. "We're going to proceed to find out how this outbreak happened," Marler said in an interview with WBZ NewsRadio 1030. "We have a pretty strong idea that it was an ill employee from the health department and we also know that the health department cultured norovirus from the restaurant itself."
Marler says Chipotle needs to be put under a microscope to make sure this doesn't happen again.
"Really Chipotle has got to get its house in order," Marler says. "I've never seen any chain have five food-borne illness outbreaks within a span of four months."
In a statement, Chipotle said, "As a matter of policy, we don't comment on details surrounding pending legal actions. Generally speaking, however, in incidents like this it is our aim to work with customers to see that these issues are resolved."
Boston Health officials say there were 153 cases of norovirus linked to the Brighton Chipotle. Boston College reported 141 students got sick from eating at the restaurant and others caught the virus from classmates.
The Chipotle norovirus outbreak comes not long after a multi-state outbreak of E. coli linked to the restaurant.
