Woman Paralyzed After Eating Nacho Cheese from Gas Station

Tricia

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Walnut Grove California

I can understand not eating gas station sushi but please I can't worry about gas station Nacho Cheese!!! That's what you buy at the gas station. Sometimes you don't even buy gas. Just a big container of chips and Nacho Cheese. A bottle of water so you can still be healthy and all right?

This is very sad and now is the reason why I never want to buy any thick substance that is squeezed out of a machine.


[FONT=&quot]Lavinia Kelly went from being a busy, happy mother of three to a partially paralyzed hospital patient after putting nacho cheese on her Doritos at a gas station, family members say.[/FONT]

http://www.foxnews.com/health/2017/05/18/mom-paralyzed-after-eating-gas-station-nacho-cheese.html
 
That is terrifying! However, when you think about it, who knows what they put in a lot of our processed food nowadays?


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What in the world? But but I shamefully love gas station nachos. Goodness sake.
 
Wonder when they'll inform us what was in it to cause this tragedy to happen! Poor lady - so awful. (Now my husband will actually listen to me about eating his beloved junk food after I tell him about this terrible story :thinking:)
 
Wonder when they'll inform us what was in it to cause this tragedy to happen! Poor lady - so awful. (Now my husband will actually listen to me about eating his beloved junk food after I tell him about this terrible story :thinking:)

"Sacramento County Public Health officials are in the midst of investigating the possible causes of illnesses in five patients recently hospitalized with food borne botulism — a rare but serious paralytic illness that can be fatal caused by a nerve toxin that is produced by the bacterium Clostridium botulinum — that is believed to have been spread by nacho cheese sauce served the Valley Oak Food and Fuel gas station in Walnut Grove, CA.

Another three probable cases and one suspect case are also under investigation, reports The Sacramento Bee, with all patients still in the hospital. Officials have since temporarily revoked the gas station’s permit to sell food and drink.

The family of one of those confirmed cases is now suing the gas station, claiming negligence, product liability, and breach of implied warranty, the Bee reports.

https://consumerist.com/2017/05/18/gas-station-cheese-sauce-linked-to-dangerous-botulism-outbreak/
 
How awful!

I wonder if the other victims ate the chips and cheese, and if not, what did they eat at the gas station to become ill? Gas stations alone are not the most sanitary in the world. You hear horror stories about gas station food. The botulism could have come from any surface in that place that was contaminated with the bacteria.

Thank you for posting this story! We will need to stay on this and find the source of the bacteria. I never eat gas station food anyway. But you would never expect an incident this serious.

Love and prayers for this woman and her family,

Satch

PS. Update: This story says that five people got sick from eating the chips and cheese from the gas station:


http://abc7chicago.com/health/botulism-strikes-5-who-ate-gas-station-nachos/2009151/
 
How scary :( I feel terrible for the family and those involved... as gross as it sounds, sometimes I just eat the nacho cheese, it's like the best disgusting fake cheese paste ever. My grandpa came down with botulism after eating leftover mashed potatoes, not sure what conditions cause botulism, but I'm a little scared to eat leftovers too...
 
Botulism is horrifying. A friend of mine and her parents contracted it in what was, at the time, one of the largest outbreaks in Texas history.

http://www.upi.com/Archives/1994/04/12/Botulism-hospitalizes-14-in-Texas/6465766123200/

Thankfully they all survived, after lengthy hospitalizations. I'm not sure if they fully recovered, as I lost touch with her about a year later.

I'm feeling the need to quote my grandma, who has lived to be 93! "If we knew what was in our food, we wouldn't eat anything." I totally agree with this. Just in the last couple of years, we've had the Blue Bell ice cream recall due to listeria and Chipotle's multiple food-borne illnesses. Just a couple of the big ones coming to mind. As yucky as it is, I try not to think too much about it because it can happen anywhere, from nice Greek restaurants to fast food to the items you buy yourself at the grocery store.

I hope this woman makes a full recovery!
 
This is probably the same cheese sauce they use for nachos in sports facilities. :eek:
 
It does look like a hole in the wall gas station though, family owned or by one person. That could contribute to the lack of guidelines or food safety (not saying this gas station is criminal or was breaking laws) but when you have a small joint ran by a family or a few people there's not much structure. For example when I worked at Starbucks, if a single drop or splash of milk got on the 'dairy free' pitcher, we had to remove it, clean it, and sanitize it. When I worked at a smaller coffee shop, there wasn't even a dairy-free pitcher, and there really weren't any guidelines to follow regarding sanitation.
 
It does look like a hole in the wall gas station though, family owned or by one person. That could contribute to the lack of guidelines or food safety (not saying this gas station is criminal or was breaking laws) but when you have a small joint ran by a family or a few people there's not much structure. For example when I worked at Starbucks, if a single drop or splash of milk got on the 'dairy free' pitcher, we had to remove it, clean it, and sanitize it. When I worked at a smaller coffee shop, there wasn't even a dairy-free pitcher, and there really weren't any guidelines to follow regarding sanitation.

This is the problem.

Gas stations and their employees are not trained in food safety and sanitation. Botulism can range from mild to deadly. Salmonella is another food bacteria related illness, and most of us have probably heard of E- Coli. To quote what another poster said, gas stations need to go back to selling gas, checking oil, and doing general car maintenance. They should not be working with food. Maybe if this lawsuit is successful, we will hopefully see a shift to the selling of food and drinks in gas stationed stopped.

I am not saying that the owners intentionally poisoned these people, God no! I am saying that gas stations don't have the knowledge or skills in food safety and preparation were they should be working with food or drink. Look at the horror of gas station bathrooms. There's even a line in one of my favorite comedy movies of all time, "Vacation" where Clark Griswald says jokingly, "Crack open those sandwiches I got at the gas station. I'm so hungry I could eat a sandwich from the gas station."

There's a lot of dark humor in that quote and indirect reference to the poor quality of food at gas stations. They need to stick to car services. Leave the food preparation to the restaurants and companies who are specialized and certified in food safety and preparation. Doing so, will likely prevent, or greatly reduce these types of tragedies from happening again.

Satch
 
I don't eat gas station food but honestly, I never thought about the training of employees or food safety rules. I guess I just assumed there would be some rules.

I live in a Third World country now and my hubby likes to buy food from very questionable sources.

The awful thing I just found out about is that the bajillionaire owner of the only grocery store turns the refrigeration off at night to save money on elec. Because he is poliically connected, he probably gets a pass on this. Every morning the employees are mopping up water. It is the only place to buy anything besides fruit and veg which the locals sell in the market.

I wonder what kind of illnesses can come from a practice such as this?
 
Botulism is a bacteria that lives in soil and can grow into botulism toxin in an anaerobic environment, improperly canned or preserved low-acid foods (green beans, bagged cheese, etc.), potatoes baked in foil and left at room temperature, the immature gut of an infant in the case of honey or ingesting dirt. IMO the gas station employees and protocols had nothing to do with it. This almost has to be the fault of the company that packaged the cheese.

MOO (and science[emoji6])


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Oh my Lord! This is horrible. This poor woman may never walk again. My mother has preached food poisoning to us since we were little. Don't eat that, you'll get botulism! Don't eat that you'll get ptomaine poison!! The only thing that was safe to eat for days after it was cooked was home fried chicken. Go figure, but I've never gotten sick from it. I never thought of this kind of stuff til recently. I stop and grab junk at gas stations, when I travel, all of the time. Now I'm afraid to eat anything from them. I just saw a news story on the ice from the pop machines the other day. (I dearly love pop machine Pepsi) The story said that a third to half of the businesses in Lexington, Ky. are cited for dirty ice machines! They discovered that toilet water was cleaner than a cup of ice at a fast food restaurant. :facepalm:

http://www.lex18.com/story/35269303/lex-18-gets-the-scoop-on-ice-and-drink-machines
 
Oh my Lord! This is horrible. This poor woman may never walk again. My mother has preached food poisoning to us since we were little. Don't eat that, you'll get botulism! Don't eat that you'll get ptomaine poison!! The only thing that was safe to eat for days after it was cooked was home fried chicken. Go figure, but I've never gotten sick from it. I never thought of this kind of stuff til recently. I stop and grab junk at gas stations, when I travel, all of the time. Now I'm afraid to eat anything from them. I just saw a news story on the ice from the pop machines the other day. (I dearly love pop machine Pepsi) The story said that a third to half of the businesses in Lexington, Ky. are cited for dirty ice machines! They discovered that toilet water was cleaner than a cup of ice at a fast food restaurant. :facepalm:

http://www.lex18.com/story/35269303/lex-18-gets-the-scoop-on-ice-and-drink-machines
I ask for no ice in my water at restaurants . Same for that slice of lemon.

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Botulism is a bacteria that lives in soil and can grow into botulism toxin in an anaerobic environment, improperly canned or preserved low-acid foods (green beans, bagged cheese, etc.), potatoes baked in foil and left at room temperature, the immature gut of an infant in the case of honey or ingesting dirt. IMO the gas station employees and protocols had nothing to do with it. This almost has to be the fault of the company that packaged the cheese.

MOO (and science[emoji6])


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

No surprise if it came from improperly canned cheese.

Botulinum is one of the most potent toxins known.

New Botulinum Toxin Deemed Deadliest Substance Ever: Sniffing 13-Billionths Of A Gram Can Kill
http://www.medicaldaily.com/new-bot...r-sniffing-13-billionths-gram-can-kill-259889
 
Lemon? Why?
Apparently they aren't always washed and also are touched a lot during and after cutting. I forget where I heard that years ago, but it grossed me out enough to remember. They're like the grossest thing you wouldn't suspect kinda thing.
 

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