Globe Staff Writer Wally Kennedy wrote about our lawsuit alleging a day care center failed to notify parents of E. coli outbreak. The E. coli outbreak hit a Joplin day-care center in May and June, affecting as many as 26 children.
Marler Clark filed the lawsuit on behalf of Patricia and Asa Wasden, parents of Ian Wasden, a 2-year-old boy who reportedly suffered from hemolytic uremic syndrome after contracting the E. coli bacteria in June. The lawsuit was filed Tuesday in Jasper County Circuit Court against Kid’s Korner Day Care Center, 2602 S. Wall Ave.
From the article:

Marler, in a prepared statement, said: “After the first child attending Kid’s Korner tested positive for E. coli, the day-care operators should have notified all parents and taken extra precautions to ensure that no other children became ill.
“Instead, they continued to operate the daycare as if nothing was wrong, which probably led to dozens of illnesses that could have been prevented.”
Through interviews by the law firm with families and officials with the Joplin Health Department, it is alleged that Kid’s Korner failed to notify 32 percent of the families whose children had attended the day-care center.
The suit alleges that 26 children attending Kid’s Korner experienced diarrhea during the month of May. Bloody diarrhea is one of the primary symptoms of E. coli infection.
The outbreak caused serious illness in at least six children, according to city and county health officials. Two of the children who became ill were from the Carthage area. One of them was enrolled in the day-care center. That child was the index case who exposed the bacteria to the other children at the center.
Drew Falkenstein, a lawyer with Marler Clark in Seattle, said Wednesday in a telephone interview: “The day-care center was responsible for our client’s E. coli infection under the facts that have been revealed.
“Where it came from, the mode of transmission into the day care, we are not sure. But, we do know our client’s parents were not informed of the outbreak, and they are responsible for that and the child’s subsequent infection.”
Falkenstein said Ian Wasden was hospitalized for nearly three weeks, and that he went through a full week of kidney dialysis, seven blood transfusions, three surgeries and a severe case of pancreatitis.