Wife Sues Claiming Airline Food Killed Her Husband
- Posted on December 2, 2011 at 7:22pm by
Liz Klimas
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People often joke about how bad airline food is, but for one family in particular it is no laughing matter. The wife and daughter of Othon Cortes from Miami, Fla., are suing American Airlines and LSG Sky Chefs over a meal they claim killed their husband and father.
(Image: LSG)
CNN reports that the women saying Cortes was infected with Clostridium perfringens from a meal that included chicken on May 18. The lawsuit states the meal was eaten on a flight from Barcelona to John F. Kennedy airport. When at the airport, Cortes was described as experiencing “discomfort and pain that included sharp stomach cramps and sudden thirst and other clear outward manifestation of severe physical illness.” While on the flight home to Miami, Cortes became nauseous, experienced shortness of breath and suffered a heart attack, which killed him.
The family has accused the companies of “failing to properly maintain or prepare the food”, according to CNN and are suing for $1 million.
But the case is no where close to settled. CNN reports that not only is perfringens, the most common form of food poisoning, considered rarely fatal by the FDA, but Sky Chefs is also saying its food would not have even catered the Barcelona flight. For now, American Airlines, which filed for bankruptcy this week, declined to comment.
[H/T Gizmodo]
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Gypsy123
Posted on December 4, 2011 at 12:14amAnd the reasons I don’t fly keep mounting
Report Post »1. TSA agents
2. Terrorist
3. deadly food.
Boson Higgs
Posted on December 3, 2011 at 7:24pmFTFA –
Report Post »“Cortes felt ”discomfort and pain that included sharp stomach cramps and sudden thirst and other clear outward manifestation of severe physical illness.” ALL this while he was in JFK Airport in N.Y. , but he gets on the flight to MIA Airport anyway. If it was “clear…manifestation of severe physical illness”, then why didn’t he call medical assistance in JFK???
I have been a lawyer for 31 years, have had a near-fatal heart attack, and have had more than one instance of food poisoning. I can assure you that that if he had had food poisoning, he would have spent the entire flight in the ‘head.’
What did the autopsy show as the cause of death ???
gmoneytx
Posted on December 3, 2011 at 2:42pmThis won’t get far…
Report Post »jharper
Posted on December 3, 2011 at 12:15pmShould have had a V8.
Report Post »motonutt
Posted on December 3, 2011 at 1:03pmNever eat the chicken….period.
Report Post »ChiefGeorge
Posted on December 3, 2011 at 11:13amI have often felt ill after eating airplane food. Its possible that she has a real case here. Can she prove he was poisened?
Report Post »South Philly Boy
Posted on December 3, 2011 at 11:07amMSG is a Killer to some people and gives others Shortness of Breath but Food companies STILL use it in their foods.
Report Post »Smokey_Bojangles
Posted on December 3, 2011 at 11:16amRead the labels? I do. Or would you rather Mrs. Obama take over all food?
Report Post »HorseCrazy
Posted on December 4, 2011 at 11:57ammsg is becoming well known as a danger and now companies are renaming it autolyzed yeast extract to try and pass it off as something else. it is still msg. be careful. I have to be with my crohnes disease.
Report Post »swimmer1940
Posted on December 3, 2011 at 9:28amWe have a Doctor acquaintance who NEVER eats any airplane food. He claims the food preparers are “challenged” people who cough, sneeze, and have terrible personal hygiene. Personally, I had a whole vacation ruined thanks to a contaminated sandwich served on a plane. That said, studies have shown that food served in airport restaurants is highly suspect.
Report Post »Sibyl
Posted on December 3, 2011 at 9:41amBYOF? Do they even allow that?
You can’t even carry a sealed water bottle on the planes.
I have given up flying because of that and the TSA groping and nude scans. One assault per lifetime is enough.
Report Post »AngryK9
Posted on December 3, 2011 at 10:16pmsibyl,
Not true. You can carry anything you purchase in the aiport once you have passe security onto a plan. Water, coffee, soft drinks, fast food. Anything.
Report Post »Ducky 1
Posted on December 4, 2011 at 1:00amYou can take your own food. They may check it out but I have food allergies and on a long flight I have to have my own food. BTW I also do all I can to not fly commercial. I prefer a military hop.
Report Post »MrKnowItAll
Posted on December 3, 2011 at 8:24amBet no one thought his Wife poisoned him and is looking like a victim. Give it a couple years. We will see it on a Deadly Women Episode.
Report Post »COFemale
Posted on December 3, 2011 at 8:09amChances that this was never food poisoning. The onset of a heart attack alone can make him nauseated. I am thinking this man started experiencing symptoms even before he boarded the plane and he kept quite.
Report Post »Hickory
Posted on December 3, 2011 at 9:25amYou are correct COFEMALE. When I had my heart attack, I had abdominal cramps and nausea. This woman is ripping someone off. The old man is gone and she needs a new sugar daddy.
Report Post »Sibyl
Posted on December 3, 2011 at 9:39amWhat about the lab tests and confirmed presence of Clostridium perfringens?
How does that affect the heart attack theory?
That would depend on how long it takes Clostridium perfringens to make someone sick and die?
Report Post »angelonquest2000
Posted on December 3, 2011 at 8:48pm@ sibyl,,,,,clostridium botulism is food poisoning, clostridium perfringens is gas gangrene…that can happen if his bowel perforated….
Report Post »E-ROCK 1791
Posted on December 3, 2011 at 3:09amSurely this is a bad time to make a “airplane” (the movie) reference. And don’t call me surely.
Report Post »shirelover
Posted on December 3, 2011 at 8:27amoh, well done! “I picked a bad time to quit …” I love the movie!
Report Post »E-ROCK 1791
Posted on December 3, 2011 at 5:42pmHa, it was pure luck. It was on last week and when I read the headline I thought “no way” lol
Report Post »Trenaway
Posted on December 3, 2011 at 12:39amThe gestation period for Clostridium perfringens is 24 hours. The flight between Bacelona to John F Kennedy is around 10 hours. Say he ate lunch half way there, that leave between five to seven hours. There is no way he got sick from eating the food on the airline. He most likely ate some food in Spain and got it from some local eatery. But you cannot sue them.
Report Post »lel2007
Posted on December 2, 2011 at 11:53pmI read this story and now I’m starting to feel cramps in my stomach.
Report Post »lel2007
Posted on December 2, 2011 at 11:51pmIt should be an easy matter to determine whether or not Sky Chefs catered the flight from Spain. But without some timely forensic investigation, who knows what the guy put in his mouth or where he picked up the bug. The airplane head maybe.
Report Post »Stoic one
Posted on December 2, 2011 at 11:33pmThe ambulance chasing lawyer was in the ER at JUST the right time……………………
Report Post »jzs
Posted on December 2, 2011 at 11:23pmGood luck making that case. Sounds like nobody else got sick.
Report Post »ZeroOff4impact
Posted on December 2, 2011 at 11:13pmThrowing the B.S. flag on this one.
Report Post »ChiefGeorge
Posted on December 3, 2011 at 11:13amNot so fast! Let the facts come in first.
Report Post »KangarooJack
Posted on December 2, 2011 at 10:44pmI smell something fishy here! Symptons were just, perhaps, too soon.
Report Post »Salamander
Posted on December 2, 2011 at 11:41pmDunno! Might smell fishy, but sounds chickeny! But, he probably ate something BEFORE the flight that gave him the symptoms, maybe even the night before!
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