My nine hellish days in the hospital after eating smoked SAUSAGE contaminated with deadly bacteria

Sue Fleming has loved liverwurst all her life. She enjoyed the smoked sausage her husband brought home every few weeks from the deli in the supermarket.

Patrick Fleming always made sure she bought Boar’s Head Braunschweiger, the type she liked best, even though it was sometimes more expensive than other brands.

“My whole family loves Braunschweiger,” said Sue Fleming. “On bread with lettuce, a little mayonnaise, a slice of gherkin.”

But the 88-year-old High Ridge, Missouri, woman is reconsidering her favorite snack after falling ill with a deadly listeria food poisoning outbreak that was linked to a nationwide recall of 7 million pounds of Boar’s Head deli meats.

The retired psychotherapist and author said she spent nine days in a hospital and 11 days in a rehabilitation center last month for what doctors confirmed was a listeria infection. She and her husband are suing Boar’s Head and Schnuck Markets Inc., which sold the deli meats, according to court documents filed July 26 in a Missouri state court.

Sue Fleming pictured at home with her husband Patrick after the injury

By early August, 43 people had become ill and three of them had died: one in New Jersey, one in Illinois and one in Virginia.

“We didn’t want anyone else to get hurt,” Fleming said in an interview.

Boar’s Head also faces a class-action lawsuit filed Aug. 1 in federal court in New York. Rita Torres of Queens County alleges the company falsely and misleadingly marketed its products and that she would not have purchased them if the company had warned her they were contaminated with listeria.

Health officials in Maryland and New York discovered listeria in unopened Boar’s Head liverwurst products, later confirming it was the same strain of bacteria that was making people sick. The company issued an initial recall on July 25 and expanded it on July 30 to more than 70 products made at its Jarratt, Virginia, plant.

Fleming’s disease underscores the potential seriousness of listeria infections in vulnerable people, especially the elderly, pregnant women or those with weakened immune systems. Victims of the outbreak range in age from 32 to 94, with a median age of 74, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

For most people, food poisoning from bacteria like listeria is an inconvenience that can cause a few days of nausea and diarrhea. But for those most at risk, the infections can be more dangerous and even deadly, said Barbara Kowalcyk, director of the Institute for Food Safety and Nutrition Security at George Washington University.

The couple has filed a lawsuit against Boar’s Head over the poisoning

Fleming’s disease underscores the potential seriousness of listeria infections in vulnerable people, particularly the elderly

“The pathogen can move from your gut into your blood and cause invasive disease,” Kowalcyk said.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Listeria infections cause about 1,600 illnesses and kill about 260 people each year in the U.S.

According to the CDC, pregnant women are about 10 times more likely to get infections caused by listeria than the general population. Such infections can cause miscarriage or serious illness in babies after birth. One person who was pregnant became ill during the outbreak but did not lose the baby, the CDC said.

Ashley Solberg of Minnesota sued Boar’s Head on Aug. 7, claiming she “nearly lost her unborn child,” according to documents filed in federal court. She said she was 35 weeks pregnant with her second child in May when she bought and sold Boar’s Head deli meats at a Publix market in Hollywood, Florida. After returning to Minnesota, Solberg became seriously ill with a listeria infection that was confirmed to match the outbreak strain. She was hospitalized for six days and given antibiotics for more than a week, the lawsuit said.

In Missouri, Fleming’s doctors worried about sepsis, a dangerous blood infection, or that the bacteria had spread to her heart or brain. As it was, the infection worsened Fleming’s previous health problems, including severe arthritis in her spine. She was sick for weeks and too weak to walk, her husband said.

“I became very afraid of Sue and was afraid of losing her,” he said.

Listeria is also dangerous for older people, because they have a more limited diet and can store food longer. Unlike other germs, the bacteria survive and even grow during refrigeration, Kowalcyk said. Previous outbreaks of listeria linked to cantaloupe, for example, affected a higher proportion of older people who bought pre-cut cantaloupe rather than whole cantaloupe.

Symptoms of a listeria infection can take days or weeks to appear, making it difficult to determine what caused it. Because all listeria infections must be reported, county health officials called Fleming and asked her to fill out a detailed questionnaire that included “dozens and dozens” of food items, Patrick Fleming said.

The couple narrowed down the possible culprits to ready-made tuna salad and chicken salad, pepperjack cheese, and the Braunschweiger.

Boar’s Head is urging consumers to throw away the recalled products or return them to the store for a refund. By that time, the deli meats affected by Boar’s Head’s recall should be off the shelves of local stores, Kowalcyk said. Consumers should feel free to ask deli managers if they have complied with the recall and sanitized their deli cutters.

Steaming meats (at about 74 degrees Celsius) can kill the bacteria.

But if there’s any doubt, “throw it out,” Kowalcyk said. “Is throwing away a few dollars’ worth of processed meats worth preventing serious illness?”