A Chicago woman claims a Wendy’s double cheeseburger came with a stomach-churning side she never ordered — a bacterial infection that landed her in the hospital twice and left her with more than $93,000 in medical bills, according to a federal lawsuit viewed by The Post.
Roxie Ellis Douglas, 68, said she contracted Campylobacteriosis after eating the burger from a Wendy’s on Chicago’s South Stony Island Avenue, triggering a cascade of serious gastrointestinal problems, including acute infectious colitis, dehydration, gastroenteritis, leukocytosis and dangerously low potassium levels.
Douglas alleges the delivered burger was “contaminated with Campylobacter and other illnesses producing bacteria,” when it left the restaurant’s control and it was “unreasonably dangerous and in a defective condition,” when it arrived at her doorstep.
The nasty bug can be especially dangerous for people 65 or older.
Douglas ordered the double cheeseburger and a baked potato online on Aug. 5, 2025, according to her complaint. DoorDash delivered the meal to her hone in a “sealed, unopened bag.”
Nothing appeared to be wrong with her dinner — but Douglas claims trouble was lurking inside.
Her lawsuit alleges the food was already contaminated when it left Wendy’s and was “not fit for the uses and purposes intended — human consumption.”
By the next day, Douglas began racking up medical expenses.
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.
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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.
