There are some kinds of personal injuries that you may not expect to lead to brain damage. For instance, falling ill with food poisoning, which is fairly common, generally ends with vomiting or fever, but most people come away unscathed. In some severe cases, people may need to be hospitalized, but even then, most recover. That’s not been the case for the man in this story. If you eat Blue Bell foods, then you may want to know about the listeria outbreak that resulted in him suffering a permanent brain injury.

According to the story, a man missed work and wasn’t answering his calls, so friends went to check on him. There, they found that he was unconscious and struggling to breathe. What happened?

His temperature had reached 107 degrees and he had to be placed in intensive care for the treatment of listeriosis. Listeriosis is a foodborne illness that can come from dairy or meats. An infection caused by listeriosis can be minor, but in this case it left the man on a respirator with a damaged nervous system. He could no longer swallow, talk or walk when he finally awoke several days later.

Blue Bell Creamery had an outbreak of this problem, the news reports, with some tainted ice cream. The 32-year-old man has said that he’s filed a lawsuit because of the brain damage he’s suffered. Now, his brain damage is permanent and he’s been left in a position where he can’t work and had to move back to New England to be with his parents. He’s reaching out with his legal team to try to hold the company accountable for the injuries he suffered and has drawn attention to the loose tracking system for these kinds of illnesses.

Source: Express News, “Blue Bell’s listeria outbreak exposes public health flaw,” Mark Collette, July 21, 2015