Mother seeks justice after listeriosis from contaminated meat caused her newborn’s death

Amelia Victor displays a tattoo of her daughter, Summer Reign, on her arm. Summer died several days after she was born from listeriosis she contracted in the womb. (Photo: Thom Pierce)

By Lerato Mutsila

11 Sep 2024

Amelia Victor was overjoyed when she found out she was pregnant. But that joy turned into tragedy when she had to make the heartbreaking decision to take her newborn baby off life support.

When Amelia Victor found out she was pregnant in March 2017, she and her husband, Kyle, were over the moon. The couple began preparing to welcome their daughter, Summer Reign, into the world.

“We were overly excited. She would have been the first grandchild born to the family, and the idea of having a daughter would bring a lot of joy to the family. We were so excited that we bought everything for her and even had a cot ready. We had so many plans, like what school she would go to. We had long-term plans,” said Amelia Victor.

mother listeriosis newborn death Amelia Victor contracted listeriosis after eating processed meat contaminated with listeria in 2017. Amelia now suffers health complications brought on by listeriosis. (Photo: Thom Pierce)

She bought baby clothes, a designer Louis Vuitton baby blanket and a baby book in anticipation of the day she and her husband would bring Summer home.

That never happened. Victor contracted listeriosis from processed meats from Tiger Brands’ Enterprise Foods line and passed it on to Summer when she was still in the womb. Summer died a day after her birth.

Read more: Tiger Brands on the hook as lawyers build case for listeriosis victims

By all measures, Victor had a good pregnancy. She took all her prenatal vitamins and never missed a visit to her doctor. The signs pointed to her having a smooth delivery and giving birth to a healthy baby.

“Toward the end of the pregnancy, I told my mom I was feeling [cravings] for deli meats, but she would try to prepare them as best as possible. These were things we used to eat — the deli meat, the chicken, the polony — I had eaten them throughout my entire life and I never got sick from them before.

“Never would I have imagined that it would be something that I eat so often that caused all of this,” she said.

Dreams shattered

On 6 November 2017, Victor fell ill with chills, stomach cramps and diarrhoea. The symptoms persisted and just over six weeks before her due date, on 8 November, she was rushed to hospital after she started bleeding.

“When they put me on the ECG monitor, my heart rate was high, and the baby’s heart rate was really high as well. It was at that point that they said I was having really bad contractions, and the doctors said it was looking like a preterm pregnancy, but they didn’t understand why.”

The doctors tried to stop the contractions because Summer’s lungs were not yet fully developed, but all attempts failed and Summer was delivered via emergency C-section on 9 November.

amelia victor listeriosis newborn death Amelia Victor displays a tattoo of her daughter, Summer Reign, on her arm. Summer died several days after she was born from listeriosis she contracted in the womb. (Photo: Thom Pierce)

She weighed 1.9kg, good for a premature baby, but her condition quickly deteriorated. The paediatrician told Victor that Summer had a bacterial infection and had suffered brain damage.

“They were seeing a lot of signs of depletion in her body and her organs. They told me if I do take her home that there is going to be a very high chance that she is either not going to be able to see, hear or speak, or she might have something even as severe as cerebral palsy.

“I said whatever it is, we will deal with that when we take her home, but just make sure she’s okay. I was willing to deal with whatever was going to come of it,” said Victor.

Unfortunately, she never had the opportunity to take Summer home.

On the morning of 10 November, Summer’s lungs began collapsing, and her oxygen was low. An MRI scan showed that she had no brain activity. Victor and her family had to make the heartbreaking decision to take Summer off life support.

“When they told me that we have to take Summer off life support, I just put my head in my hands. I didn’t think that was a decision we would ever have to make. I just expected her to come home.

“I felt helpless and that I needed to blame someone, or maybe it was me, and the one thing I needed to do as a mother was to keep her safe, and I couldn’t even do that. I can safely say that was one of the hardest decisions we ever had to make.”

After saying goodbye to Summer and returning home, Victor’s condition worsened. She could not eat, and the vomiting, stomach cramps and diarrhoea continued.

Read more: ‘They robbed my daughter of a future’ — how listeriosis shattered a mother’s dreams

Hopes for justice

Two weeks later, Victor found out that the cause of her prolonged illness and her baby’s death was listeriosis, which she had contracted from eating contaminated food.

“I was so shocked because I could understand what I ate or what I did get wrong. I made sure that I ate everything that was good. Even with the brands, I made sure that I bought the best brand because you know that you are pregnant, and you do not intentionally ingest anything that you think could be a detriment to your baby. It was a shock for all of us,” said Victor.

Since contracting listeriosis in the 2017/18 outbreak, in addition to mourning Summer’s death, Victor has had prolonged health issues and now has a compromised immune system.

She and her husband still suffer from depression, and as a result of not being able to work, they lost their businesses.

Victor is a claimant in the class action against Tiger Brands and she wants justice for herself and her baby.

“Justice to me is taking accountability when you are wrong. It’s about not denying something because of what you stand to lose but about doing the right thing in the eyes of the rights of the people who have been wronged by your negligence.”

Class action

Daily Maverick has reported that the legal team behind the class action against Tiger Brands received new evidence that definitively linked the listeriosis outbreak to the company.

Read more: Listeriosis tragedy ‘breakthrough’ evidence makes ‘overwhelming’ case Tiger Brands was responsible – lawyers

Richard Spoor Incorporated Attorneys and LHL Attorneys said they had received confirmation that the sequence type 6 (ST6) strain predominantly responsible for the outbreak was found in Tiger Brands’ Enterprise facility in Polokwane and no other location.

The evidence has renewed hopes that Tiger Brands will be found liable for the outbreak and the victims will be compensated.

Tiger Brands previously told Daily Maverick that it was committed to ensuring a resolution of the class action in the shortest possible time, in the interest of all parties, particularly the victims.

“Tiger Brands’ legal team and the attorneys representing the plaintiffs in the class action continue to attend to pretrial preparations to get the matter ready for trial, where liability will be determined by the court. The court will allocate a trial date once all necessary pretrial procedures have been attended to and the matter is ready to proceed to trial,” said the company. DM

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South Africa

Dreams shattered

Hopes for justice

Class action