Wahaca facing legal claim from diabetic girl, 16, after she fell ill at branch struck by norovirus outbreak
MEXICAN restaurant chain Wahaca faces a potential compensation claim from the family of a 16-year-old girl who needed hospital treatment days after eating at one of its branches hit by a suspected sickness bug outbreak.
The company, launched by 2005 MasterChef winner Thomasina Miers and co-founder Mark Selby, voluntarily closed nine of its London restaurants earlier this month.
Public Health England (PHE) said an investigation is ongoing after 205 staff and 160 members of the public became sick following an outbreak of norovirus.
Sarah Cousins, 16, from Wallingford in Oxfordshire, visited the restaurant in White City with dad Mike and his partner Kate Walker on October 29.
The A-Level student, who has Type 1 diabetes and coeliac disease, ordered chicken tinga tacos and sweet potato and feta cheese taquitos, while the family shared guacamole.
She said she began to feel ill in the following days with persistent vomiting before her family took her to hospital, where she was admitted with gastroenteritis and ketoacidosis - a potentially life-threatening complication of diabetes caused by a lack of insulin.
The teenager was put on a drip and kept in overnight until she was well enough to return home.
Sarah, known to her family as Evie, said: "It was very serious at the time. On Sunday night I was probably the sickest I've ever been and I've been in hospital quite a few times. That last time was 2014."
Her dad has instructed solicitors Irwin Mitchell to investigate with a view to claiming compensation and Sarah, who missed a week of college as a result of the illness, said she felt compensation from the company would be the "decent thing to do".
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Mike, 48, a manager at a software engineering company, said the family had been regular customers at Wahaca but instructed solicitors to probe the cause after seeing reports of the norovirus outbreak on the news.
"The illness Sarah suffered was extremely concerning as she ended up being admitted to hospital and we were very worried for her health. It is particularly distressing for Sarah because of the disruption to her studies and the effects on her diabetes," he said.
"Thankfully, although symptoms continue, she was able to recover well enough to leave hospital but things could have been a lot worse. For this to happen as a result of the illness outbreak linked to the Wahaca restaurants is concerning and we hope the restaurant will explain how this was able to happen."
His partner Kate also felt "very ill" but recovered several days later, he said.
Norovirus causes diarrhoea and vomiting and those afflicted generally return to full health after a few days.
A spokeswoman for Wahaca said: "We are greatly saddened by this case, and promptly after the family in question was in touch with us our co-founder responded personally.
"Wahaca has been proactively working with the relevant authorities in order to limit the impact on our customers and employees, following the recent outbreak of suspected norovirus in some of our outlets.
"Working with these authorities, we are confident that the issue has been neutralised. Our customers and employees are extremely important to us, and we will continue to give this issue our full attention."
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