The Daily Journal reported today that Detective Sgt. Michael Santiago, who nearly died from food poisoning, has settled a federal lawsuit against Cracker Barrel. The terms of the settlement are confidential.
Camden attorney Brendan Kavanagh, who represented Santiago, said that the Santiago family had run up more than $2 million in medical costs, which is not unusual for a HUS case.
Santiago, his family and friends had been on a camping trip to New York in July 2002. On the return trip, Santiago became violently ill not long after eating at a Cracker Barrel in Binghamton, N.Y. The illness was traced to an E. coli infection. Santiago spent two- and-a-half months in hospitals. He was in an induced coma for much of that time; he suffered seizures and lost nearly half of his body weight.