Woman Files Beef Lawsuit Against Two Companies

Monday, July 2nd 2007, 11:04 am

By: News On 6

A Muskogee woman is filing a beef lawsuit against Wal-Mart and Tyson foods. News On 6 anchor Lori Fullbright reports she claims hamburger meat made her sick and has put her in the hospital for nearly three weeks.

Melinda Pierce says she bought some Tyson hamburger meat at the Muskogee Wal-Mart on June 4th and made enchiladas with it two days later.

"I cooked the meat first, browned it, then baked it, so I know it was cooked perfectly fine," said Pierce.

She says the next day, she and her husband got sick. He recovered, but because of her weakened immune system from a prior kidney transplant, she says she got worse and was admitted into a Tulsa hospital.

"I'm still on medications to keep me from throwing up and going to the bathroom every few seconds,â€ Pierce said.

On June 8th, Tyson foods announced it was voluntarily recalling 40,000 pounds worth of packages of ground beef made in its Sherman, Texas, plant on June 2nd and sent to Wal-Mart stores in 12 states, including Oklahoma.

It said a sample of the meat contained E. coli. Melinda Pierce believes she ate some of that meat and is filing a lawsuit against both Tyson and Wal-Mart.

"This isn't about money,â€ Pierce said. â€œI don't ever want to go back on dialysis in my life. That's what scares me the most is danger toward losing my kidney because of something like this."

Tyson foods told us they'd be glad to talk to Pierce and look into her claims but couldn't really give us a statement since they were unaware of her illness or the lawsuit.

Wal-Mart says it cannot comment on a lawsuit it has not seen, but that food safety is a priority and that's why they immediately pulled the meat from the stores when they were notified by Tyson.