ARLINGTON
By Christine McConville, Globe Staff | July 1, 2004
A spokewoman for the company that owns Friendly’s restaurants said this week the firm is willing to reimburse Arlington for the cost of giving immune globulin injections to some 2,800 people last month after a waitress at the company’s restaurant at 105 Broadway contracted hepatitis A.
Maura Tobias, the spokeswoman, said the Friendly Ice Cream Corp. would be ”happy to reimburse Arlington for the costs associated with the inoculations.”
Arlington health director Christine Connolly said earlier this week she was still calculating the costs for the three-day inoculation effort at the former Symmes Hospital. But, she said, the expenses would include hiring nurses to administer the shots, renting buses to shuttle people from a satellite parking lot to the inoculation site, buying syringes, and paying for police details and town employee overtime. The immune globulin was provided by the state free of charge, she said.
Connolly’s statements came as the restaurant opened Monday nearly two weeks after the town shut it down because of the hepatitis case and problems health agents found in the restaurant’s food-handling practices. The health director said Monday that officials had not heard of any Friendly’s customers falling ill with hepatitis.
The restaurant reopened three days after a Boston man who said he had eaten in the restaurant in June filed a class action lawsuit against Friendly’s in Middlesex Superior Court, charging that the restaurant had potentially exposed people to hepatitis A. In the suit, Frederick C. Foster alleges that, because of the hepatitis case, he and many other customers had to wait in line for inoculations, losing wages. Foster has hired a Seattle law firm known for its work in developing class action suits on food contamination cases.
Tobias said the company is disappointed that the lawsuit was filed, ”but right now our focus is on welcoming back the Arlington guests and letting them know that their loyalty and patronage means a lot.”
In an earlier statement, Friendly’s said it was cooperating fully with health officials in Arlington and that ”all available information indicates that this incident is isolated to one employee in one restaurant.”
Connolly said local health officials learned from Mount Auburn Hospital June 14 that the Friendly’s waitress had been tested for hepatitis, a highly contagious disease that can cause an enlarged liver. Health agents visited the restaurant the following day and closed it down immediately after they found health code violations that included improper hand washing by workers, poor food preparation practices, unwashed salads, and failure to refrigerate eggs and cheese.
The hepatitis case was confirmed June 16, and Friendly’s employees were inoculated the next day. Health officials also urged anyone who had eaten at the restaurant from June 4 to June 15 to get the immune globulin inoculation, which can prevent the illness or reduce the severity of symptoms if given within two weeks of exposure.
Connolly said this week the restaurant has had employees complete training sessions on safe ways to handle food and how to help people who are choking. The restaurant also had to correct the health code violations before being allowed to reopen, she said.
The lawsuit, which was filed Friday, is being handled by Seattle lawyer William Marler and the local firm of Sabra & Aspden of Somerset. According to the lawsuit and information on Marler’s website, the Seattle firm has been involved in numerous food contamination lawsuits. The Somerset firm also has experience representing people in these class action lawsuits.
The suit says that Foster ate at the Broadway Friendly’s on June 11 and got the immune globulin injection. In the suit Foster said he has lost wages and suffered harm, humiliation, and emotional distress because of the episode.
Though local health officials knew of no cases of hepatitis among Friendly’s customers, Connolly advised people who may have been exposed and were unable to get a shot within two weeks of June 15 to watch for symptoms such as nausea, vomiting, fever, yellowing of the eyes, and brown urine and to consult their health care providers if they become sick.
Connolly said that while most people who are exposed to the virus ”get over it” after suffering mild flu-like symptoms, for others, exposure can be very dangerous.
The biggest question around town these days is how to prevent the spread of the virus.
“Hand washing and personal hygiene is very important,” she said.
Christine McConville’s email is cmcconville@globe.com.