A CHICKEN Twister from Kentucky Fried Chicken is at the centre of a multi-million dollar legal battle in the New South Wales Supreme Court after a healthy seven-year-old girl was crippled and brain damaged from salmonella poisoning.
Her parents are now seeking more than $10 million dollars in damages from Yum! Restaurants Australia, the local arm of a huge international chain.
The case, due in court on Thursday, comes a week after KFC stores in Miranda and West Hurstville were given a record fine of $73,125 and convicted of 11 charges of breaches of food hygiene laws following an investigation by the food authority.
Monika Samaan collapsed and had to be rushed to hospital with her mother Hanna, 11-year-old brother Abanoub, and father Amanwial who had also shared her Twister from Villawood KFC on October 24, 2005.
Monika, now 11, suffered from salmonella encephalopathy and salmonella septicaemia that developed into acquired spastic quadriplegia and acquired profound intellectual disability and liver dysfunction.
"As a family we have gone through a lot of struggles," her father Amanwial Samaan told The Daily Telegraph yesterday.
"She loved swimming, riding her bikes and was the best in her class at school now she can not do anything."
Before the illness Monika was a vibrant and chatty seven-year-old who had a childhood dream of being a doctor.
On the evening she ate the Twister, Monika complained she couldn't finish, so she shared it with her elder brother and parents. Her grandmother who was also in the house chose not to have any. The next morning the four who had eaten the Twister felt ill with vomiting and diarrhoea.
Three visited a GP who advised them to purchase some electrolytes over the counter at the chemist. The next day Monika collapsed and all four were rushed to Westmead and Fairfield hospitals.
Experts at Westmead Hospital found Monika, her parents and older brother had a common strain of salmonella in their stools. Medical microbiologist Dr David Andresen, from The Childrens Hospital at Westmead said salmonella poisoning is very common, with hundreds of cases reported each year however Monika's case is extremely rare.
Kydon Segal Lawyers representing Monika are seeking anyone who worked at the Villawood store in 2005 to contact them.
Yum! Restaurants Australia spokesman Nick Bryden said in a statement that the NSW Government food authorities at the time in 2005 concluded there was no link between KFC Villawood and the illness.
"KFC's supplier also confirmed that routine tests showed that the chicken supplied to the store contained none of the alleged strain of salmonella," he said.
"At the time Monika fell ill no other customers at the store lodged any complaints. We have a comprehensive food safety system in place which exceeds the Australian standards, our chicken is delivered fresh into store, and it is cooked in electronically controlled cookers, which is an extremely safe form of cooking."
