Karen Echard decided to sue the berry maker for giving her hepatitis A.
The lawsuit was filed on June 6 in Anthem, Ariz. to have Townsend Farms pay for the damages its product did to her. Since she got sick, she was not able to go to work, might not be able to graduate from school, and faced with medical bills worth almost a $100,000 because she had no insurance.
She was certain that she acquired her hepatitis A from eating Townsend Farms Organic Antioxidant Blend Frozen Berry and Pomegranate Mix which she bought at Costco in April. The product was part of her daily breakfast routine. A few weeks later, she started experiencing flu-like symptoms of the disease. She rushed to the emergency room when what she thought was flu made her skin yellow. Being a medical student herself, she knew that something was terribly wrong with her liver.
The emergency room doctors diagnosed her with hepatitis A and she was hospitalized for six days. Her doctor wasn’t sure how she got the virus after she answered ‘no’ on the diagnostic questions they had for patients. They only found out that it may be the frozen berry drink which may have caused the disease when news about the infection came out affecting many customers.
Echard is still under recovery but is now in fear of her future. The place where she has worked for 10 years couldn’t guarantee if they would still keep her as a fulltime employee; the diploma she wanted may not be served since she missed her classes; and she couldn’t think of where to get the money to pay for the medical bills. The longest recovery time for the disease is six months.
"I mean if I don't have a job, I don't have a degree, what do I have? Hepatitis A," said Karen Echard in an interview with Fox 10 News.
