One of the egg companies linked to a Salmonella outbreak and massive egg recall faces a fifth lawsuit brought on behalf of a salmonellosis victim by the Seattle law firm Marler Clark.

The lawsuit against Quality Egg, which does business as Wright County Egg, was filed in U.S. District Court in Iowa on behalf of J.T. Tucker, a preschooler from Sachse, Texas who became seriously ill after eating a cake made with eggs produced by the defendant.

About two days after eating the cake, on or about July 7, 2010, the little boy began experiencing severe fevers, abdominal cramps, nausea, diarrhea and vomiting. He was ill for several days.  

On July 20,  J.T.’s mother Jennifer Tucker took him to Children’s Medical Center at Legacy, where he initially was diagnosed with constipation and right hip pain.  He was discharged to go home, but his symptoms worsened, prompting his mother to take him back to the hospital the next day.

The child was admitted and treated for extremely high fevers and hip pain before it was  discovered that a bone in his right hip, and the tissues surrounding it, had become infected as a result of the Salmonella enteritidis bacteria.

J.T. remained hospitalized until July 28 but continued to suffer significant pain as a result of the septic illness, and bone infection, that resulted from his Salmonella enteritidis infection.

Wright County Egg and Hillandale Eggs recalled more than a half billion eggs in August after the two producers’ eggs were determined to have caused at least 1,806 people to become ill with salmonellosis.