Follow-Up: First Lawsuit in Oyster Salmonella Outbreak as Colorado Woman Sues Whole Foods and Virginia Oyster Company
Sherry DeCrow of Lafayette, Colorado, and her husband, John Hadar, filed a lawsuit on October 30 in the U.S. District Court for the District of Colorado against Whole Foods Market Rocky Mountain/Southwest, L.P. and The Little Wicomico Oyster Company, LLC of Northumberland County, Virginia. The case, DeCrow v. Whole Foods Market Rocky Mountain/Southwest, L.P., et al., is the first publicly announced lawsuit arising from the multistate Salmonella Telelkebir outbreak linked to raw oysters harvested from Virginia's Little Wicomico River. The plaintiffs are represented by the foodborne illness firm Marler Clark.
According to the complaint, DeCrow bought a dozen raw Blue Point oysters at the seafood counter of the Whole Foods store at 303 Marshall Road in Superior on June 5, 2026, and ate them that day. Within hours she became violently ill with fever, chills, vomiting, diarrhea, and severe abdominal and joint pain, and her stool culture was positive for Salmonella. More than four months later she is still testing positive, and her doctors are evaluating her for reactive arthritis and other post-infectious complications. Before her illness, she worked as a hardwood flooring installer.
The complaint also alleges that on two occasions Whole Foods seafood counter employees told DeCrow raw oysters could be kept and eaten over three to four days. "Sherry did nothing wrong. She bought oysters from a store she trusted, asked how to handle them safely, and followed the advice she was given," said William Marler, managing partner of Marler Clark. "Four months later she is still shedding Salmonella and dealing with joint pain that may stay with her for years."
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) announced the outbreak on October 19, reporting 27 people sick in 12 states, including two in Colorado, with illnesses beginning in late May. The Virginia Department of Health has reported a larger count of 53 people in 18 states. Little Wicomico's recall covers only oysters harvested from September 18 through October 8. "The recall window tells you when the problem was caught, not when it started," Marler said. "People were getting sick from these oysters in May and June. Those oysters were sold and eaten long before anyone told the public to stop."
The recalled oysters were distributed to restaurants and retailers in California, Colorado, Connecticut, the District of Columbia, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Maryland, Missouri, North Carolina, New Jersey, Nevada, New York, Pennsylvania, Texas and Virginia, and may have been further distributed. Five people have been hospitalized, with no deaths reported.
The complaint asserts claims for strict products liability, breach of implied warranty and negligence, along with a loss of consortium claim by Hadar. Whole Foods and Little Wicomico have not publicly responded to the lawsuit, and the allegations remain to be decided by the court.
Source: PR Newswire (Marler Clark release): Colorado woman sues over oyster Salmonella outbreak
Source: GSM · USA (original Chinese edition)
Photo: 图：生食牡蛎（资料图，非涉事产品）。Austrid taldrikul，CC BY-SA 4.0，经 Wikimedia Commons。 / Raw oysters (file photo, not the product involved). Austrid taldrikul, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
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- 2026-10-30Follow-Up: First Lawsuit in Oyster Salmonella Outbreak as Colorado Woman Sues Whole Foods and Virginia Oyster CompanyThis story
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