Guillain-Barré Syndrome (GBS) Lawyer

Why these cases are different

Guillain-Barré syndrome, or GBS, is an autoimmune injury. After certain infections, the immune system gets confused and attacks the body's own peripheral nerves through a process called molecular mimicry. The result is weakness and tingling that usually start in the legs and climb upward. In severe cases the person becomes paralyzed, and when the muscles that control breathing fail, patients end up intubated in intensive care. The CDC reports that most people begin to recover two to three weeks after symptoms start, but recovery can take years, and some are left with permanent nerve damage.

What ties GBS to a legal claim is its link to a specific bacterium. Campylobacter is the leading identified infectious trigger for GBS. The CDC states that about 1 in 1,000 Campylobacter infections leads to GBS, and that at least 1 in 20 GBS patients had a recent Campylobacter infection, with some studies finding that figure as high as 8 in 20. Peer-reviewed research puts the share of GBS cases preceded by Campylobacter at roughly 25 to 40 percent. That connection is not just scientifically interesting. It is the foundation of a causation argument that links a contaminated meal to a catastrophic nerve injury.

Why the injury is severe and the cases are high value

The numbers behind GBS explain why these claims carry weight. Published reviews report that GBS leads to more than 6,000 hospital admissions a year in the United States, that about one quarter of patients need mechanical ventilation, and that somewhere between 3 and 11 percent die of GBS-related complications. Standard treatment is intravenous immunoglobulin or plasma exchange, both delivered in a hospital, often followed by a long stretch of inpatient rehabilitation.

Campylobacter-triggered GBS tends to be worse than GBS from other causes. Research published in Clinical Microbiology Reviews found that 23 percent of patients with prior Campylobacter infection were unable to walk at follow-up, compared with 9 percent of patients whose GBS was not linked to Campylobacter. For a claim, that means the damages are not limited to a hospital bill. They can include ICU and ventilator costs, ongoing therapy, lost income and lost earning capacity, future medical care, and the loss of independence that comes with permanent disability.

What it takes to prove the claim

The hard part of a GBS food poisoning case is usually not whether the food was contaminated. It is whether that infection caused the nerve injury. Defendants frequently concede that the food made the person sick and then dispute that it caused the GBS that followed weeks later. Two well-known public verdicts show how this plays out. In Sarti v. Salt Creek, a California jury awarded a young woman $725,000 in economic and $2.5 million in non-economic damages after she developed GBS from cross-contaminated raw tuna, and the California Court of Appeal reinstated that verdict. In Martinez v. Lobster Haven, a Florida jury returned a verdict for a man who developed GBS after eating contaminated seafood, and the appellate court reinstated that verdict after the trial court set it aside. These are public court records from other cases, not results of this firm, but they show that the causation link can be proven to a jury with the right evidence.

That evidence is time sensitive. Stool cultures, medical records, the food history, restaurant inspection findings, and any record of other people sickened by the same source all help establish the chain from a contaminated product to a Campylobacter infection to GBS. Some of that proof fades quickly, which is why it helps to involve a lawyer early.

How Ron Simon & Associates can help

Ron Simon & Associates focuses exclusively on foodborne illness litigation. Our food poisoning law firm has recovered more than $850 million for food poisoning victims, has represented over 6,000 clients, and brings more than 55 years of combined experience to holding negligent food producers accountable across all 50 states. We work with medical experts to build the causation case that these claims demand, and we trace the contaminated food back through the restaurant, processor, dairy, or distributor whose negligence the evidence supports.

You pay nothing unless we recover compensation for you, and the case evaluation is free. If GBS has turned your life upside down after a food poisoning, contact us to find out where you stand.