Oregon Woman Claims She Contracted E. Coli from Dole Spinach

By Daniel Hawn

Published on September 22, 2006

Gwyn Wellborn of Salem says she purchased the spinach on or around Aug. 21 and consumed it over a period of several days.

She says she experienced increasingly severe bouts of diarrhea a week later and was taken to Salem Hospital by her husband. The suit says she was discharged and readmitted later for several days before being transferred to Oregon Health and Science University in Portland after life-threatening complications surfaced.

Wellborn’s lawsuit says she was discharged from the hospital on Sept. 8 and is now recovering at home after having undergone four transfusions and other medical treatment.

Although Dole is named as the suit’s defendant, the exact origin of the E. Coli outbreak is unknown, said Dr. David Acheson of the US Food and Drug Administration’s Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition. On Friday, he said that Natural Selection Foods based in San Juan Bautista, California, has been confirmed as a source of the outbreak, but that it was possible that other companies are responsible for the contamination as well.

A spokesperson for Dole said that he had not seen the lawsuit and could not provide comment. He said, however, that Dole and other companies that produce bagged salads are focusing on the outbreak.

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