‘Am I going to die?’ Parents sue Panera over peanut butter in grilled cheese
Most people wouldn’t think peanut butter is a typical ingredient for grilled cheese.
But parents of children with peanut allergies are typically overly cautious, for good reason. John and Elissa Russo are no different.
Despite their caution, their now 6-year-old child ended up in a hospital in January after an allergic reaction to peanut butter. They filed a lawsuit last week against Panera, saying the restaurant had been “unfair and deceptive” by including the ingredient on their daughter’s sandwich.
The parents put in an online order to a Panera in Natick, Massachusetts on Jan. 28, according to the Boston Globe. Elissa Russo specified in two places on the order that the grilled cheese was for a child with a peanut allergy.
But when the little girl bit into the sandwich, her parents found there was peanut butter on it and immediately called their pediatrician. As Elissa Russo rushed to the phone, the girl reportedly started to panic, repeatedly asking her parents, “Am I going to die?”
The doctor told them to give her Benadryl since she had no serious symptoms.
After the girl vomited, her mother took her to the hospital. Just as she was about to be discharged, she broke out in hives and required a shot of epinephrine. She stayed the night in the hospital and was released the next morning.
John Russo said he called the Natick Panera that night and spoke to a manager, who apologized and blamed the incident on a “language” issue. Russo said that’s no excuse.
“Did they just see ‘peanut’ and not the ‘allergy’ part?” Russo asked the Globe rhetorically.
The lawsuit also mentions a nearly identical incident, when a child allergic to peanuts ordered a grilled cheese from a Panera in Wayland, Massachusetts and suffered an anaphylactic reaction that required hospitalization. The Natick and Wayland Paneras are both owned by Newton-based PR Restaurants.
Russo told the Globe that the woman involved in the Wayland incident did not want to be party to the lawsuit.
Mitchell Roberts, operating partner of PR Restaurants, said he hadn’t heard about the lawsuit on Thursday.
“They’re saying there were two different cases at two different restaurants of ours where someone ordered a grilled cheese sandwich and said they had a peanut allergy and they were served grilled cheese sandwiches with peanut butter in them?” Roberts asked the Globe. “That doesn’t sound feasible.”
This story was originally published June 6, 2016 at 11:06 AM with the headline "‘Am I going to die?’ Parents sue Panera over peanut butter in grilled cheese."