Sarah Schacht was, according to KIRO, only 13 when she got sick after eating partially cooked meat at Jack in the Box 20 years ago. The 1993 encounter with E. coli made her a lifelong vegetarian. 

Last week, however, it wasn’t meat that made Schacht sick at Ambassel Ethiopian Restaurant in Seattle.

“The first plate of food came out cold,” she told KIRO 7 Eyewitness News reporter David Ham, “and that was a vegetarian platter.”

She sent it back, and got a new dish in return. 

However, Schacht still got sick. She suffered extreme cramping and bloating and eventually ended up in the emergency room, where she was told that her intestines were inflamed.

“My stomach grew and grew and grew to where it looked like I was seven or eight months pregnant,” Schacht said.

King County Health found at least two people contracted E. coli from Ambassel within the past few weeks.

The restaurant was cited for unsatisfactory sanitary conditions five times in the past three years. It will stay closed until all food handling concerns are addressed.