A Chicago woman says a Wendy’s double cheeseburger came with far more than she bargained for: a severe bacterial infection that allegedly sent her to the hospital twice and left her facing more than $93,000 in medical costs, according to a federal lawsuit reviewed by The Post.
Roxie Ellis Douglas, 68, claims she developed Campylobacteriosis after eating a burger from a Wendy’s location on South Stony Island Avenue in Chicago. The illness, she says, led to a series of serious digestive and medical complications, including acute infectious colitis, dehydration, gastroenteritis, leukocytosis and dangerously low potassium levels.
In the complaint, Douglas alleges the delivered burger was “contaminated with Campylobacter and other illnesses producing bacteria” when it left the restaurant’s control, and that it reached her door in an “unreasonably dangerous” and defective condition.
Campylobacter infections can cause significant gastrointestinal illness and may pose heightened risks for older adults, particularly those 65 and above.
Douglas placed an online order for a double cheeseburger and a baked potato on Aug. 5, 2025, the lawsuit states. DoorDash delivered the meal to her home in what she describes as a “sealed, unopened bag.”
At first glance, nothing about the meal seemed unusual, according to Douglas — but she contends the danger was already inside.
Her lawsuit argues the food had been contaminated before it left Wendy’s and was “not fit for the uses and purposes intended — human consumption.”
By the following day, Douglas says, her symptoms had begun and her medical bills started to mount.
Court exhibits show $93,578.24 in healthcare bills since Aug. 6, 2025, including a $2,848.50 ambulance ride to Advocate Trinity Hospital and $24,434 for an initial three-day hospital stay, and $42,857 for a second, five-day stay at Advocate a week later, according to the lawsuit.
The medical ordeal continued for months, with Douglas undergoing a colonoscopy in January 2026 that cost nearly $13,000, the filing said.
Douglas said she trusted Wendy’s to safely prepare her food and never expected her meal to contain a “deadly pathogen.”
In the lawsuit — initially filed in state court on July 30 before being removed to Chicago federal court on Aug. 20 — she accuses the fast food giant of “failure to use safe and proper inspection practices and failure to eliminate the presence of Campylobacter bacteria and other illness producing bacteria,” along with “failure to provide adequate warning to consumers or users of the dangers of hazards inherent in the consumption of double cheeseburger meal.”
She is seeking $50,000 in damages.
Wendy’s did not immediately return The Post’s request for comment.
