3 dead, 2 sick: Blue Bell Listeria victim’s wife speaks out

68-year-old Richard Porter faced several health issues during the last year of his life. He had cancer and gastrointestinal bleeding that hospitalized him at Via Christi Saint Francis in Wichita, Kansas.

blue.bell.scoopsPorter’s widow, Lois, says he was very sick and then things got even worse.

“He really should have been getting better. Sure enough they did a blood culture and that’s when we found out he had listeria.”

One of Porter’s doctors, Doctor Tom Moore, says while the bacteria did not play a part in porter’s ultimate death, it did make him a lot sicker.

Dr. Moore said, “The listeria was not in any way related to the condition in which he was presented. It was a complete surprise and one which could not be explained. “

The Kansas Department of Health and Environment was soon calling Porter’s wife to investigate. Dr. Moore said at that point it was an isolated case, but would turn into the first of the outbreak.

listeria.porter-PNG“They just asked questions about where I bought food, where he had eaten, where I had bought my groceries,” Lois Porter said.

Now, more than six months since his death, KDHE found the link, contaminated Blue Bell ice cream served at the hospital.

Lois Porter tells Eyewitness News she doesn’t hold any resentment against the ice cream company or the hospital. But she does say she’s extra careful about what she eats and is more concerned about contamination when it comes to food.

3 dead, 2 sick in Kansas from Listeria in ice cream made in Texas

Three people are dead and two sick, all from the same hospital in Kansas and linked to Blue Bell Scoops milkshakes and the company publishes this on its website: “For the first time in 108 years, Blue Bell announces a recall” (right, exactly as shown).

blue.bell.108Way to go with the empathy.

Several government agencies have announced the outbreak, saying patients became ill with listeriosis after hospitalizations for unrelated causes at the same hospital. They became ill between January 2014 and January 2015 after a majority were known to have consumed Blue Bell Creameries ice cream at the hospital.

The outbreak was recently discovered after two patients were identified with the same strain of listeriosis. Further investigation identified three other patients with listeriosis who had been hospitalized for unrelated causes before the onset of listeriosis.

blue.bell.creameriesOf the four ill people for whom information is available on the foods eaten in the month before Listeria infection, all four consumed milkshakes made with a single-serving Blue Bell brand ice cream product called “Scoops” while they were in the hospital.

The five patients who were treated in a single hospital in Kansas were infected with one of four rare strains of Listeria monocytogenes. Three of these strains, which are highly similar, have also been found in products manufactured at the Blue Bell Creameries production facility in Brenham, Texas.

FDA was notified that these three strains and four other rare strains of Listeria monocytogenes were found in samples of Blue Bell Creameries single serving Chocolate Chip Country Cookie Sandwich and the Great Divide Bar ice cream products collected by the South Carolina Department of Health & Environmental Control during routine product sampling at a South Carolina distribution center, on February 12, 2015. These products are manufactured at Blue Bell Creameries’ Brenham facility.

blue.bellThe Texas Department of State Health Services, subsequently, collected product samples from the Blue Bell Creameries Brenham facility. These samples yielded Listeria monocytogenes from the same products tested by South Carolina and a third single-serving ice cream product, Scoops, which is also made on the same production line.

The Blue Bell brand ice cream products with tests showing Listeria monocytogenes were ice cream Scoops, Chocolate Chip Country Cookie Sandwiches, and Great Divide Bars.

Today, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration warned consumers about the potential contamination in Blue Bell Creameries’ products. Kansas health officials are warning consumers who have purchased the following Blue Bell Creameries novelty items and have not consumed the items to discard them:

Chocolate Chip Country Cookie

Great Divide Bar

Sour Pop Green Apple Bar

Cotton Candy Bar

Scoops

Vanilla Stick Slices

Almond Bar

2 sickened: Fancy food ain’t safe food, Listeria in Wash. ice creamery edition

A Snohomish gourmet ice-cream producer linked to two cases of Listeria poisoning failed a health inspection in October, but state officials didn’t shut it down until the infections came to light.

Snoqualmie.ice.creamJoNel Aleccia of the Seattle Times reports the problems detected during the Oct. 15 inspection weren’t deemed “critical,” so the firm continued operations, said Kirk Robinson, assistant director for food safety and consumer services with the Washington State Department of Agriculture (WSDA).

“When we do an inspection, 90 or above would be a passing inspection,” Robinson said, noting that Snoqualmie scored 87 in October.

Among the problems noted in October: deteriorating floors; excessive dust and “dried, flaking residue” on parts of the pasteurizer vat; “black residue” on metal carts; mold on a bucket used to collect water; standing water in a walk-in cooler; flies; and male workers without facial-hair protection.

The plant, which typically sends 1,000 gallons a day of ice cream, sorbet and gelato to Whole Foods, Fred Meyer, Molly Moon, Seattle’s Space Needle and others, was shut down last week, after the Listeria illnesses were confirmed in two King County men.

UK ice cream parlor fined after boy’s mouth injuries

An ice cream parlour has been landed with a £12,000 fine after a boy sliced his tongue on a shard of glass hidden inside a chocolate sundae.

2381345411The 11-year-old was tucking into the dessert at Scoops Gelato, in Elm Grove, Southsea, during a trip with his mum when he was left in agony and bleeding from the mouth.

The boy needed stitches at Queen Alexandra Hospital, in Cosham, Portsmouth, as a result of the ordeal.

Portsmouth City Council’s trading standards team, prosecuting Scoops Gelato at Portsmouth Magistrates’ Court yesterday, revealed an error made by staff resulted in the accident.

A worker preparing the dessert tapped the glass with a scoop to pour in the ice cream, unwittingly causing part of it to break and fall in.

Victoria Putnam, council prosecutor, said the cut in the boy’s mouth was ‘severe’ and ‘deep’ – and blamed the firm’s failure to adopt the basic safety procedures of a normal food business for the accident, which happened on June 21 this year.

‘Had the businesses put steps in place – which it has put in place since that incident – it would never have happened,’ she said. 

157 sick: Norovirus in ice cream in Germany

According to Sudwest Presse (and something will probably be lost in translation) by Thursday afternoon, there were 157 reports of a gastrointestinal virus’ that were reported to the local health department. According to the Reutlinger Office noroviruses were Norochickdetected in the ice cream consumed.

A health department investigation revealed that the majority of people affected consumed ice cream last Sunday and started vomiting 24 hours later. A laboratory diagnosis of the patients is still pending.