The customer who sued McDonald's over cheese on a Big Mac says he still eats there but doesn't “trust” it

subway

by David Propper

He still loves her – but with a huge exception.

A Rockland County man has sued McDonald's after he says the wrong slice of cheese in his Big Mac nearly killed him in February 2021. He still eats from the greasy fast-food place, but he will only order a regular burger and won't eat out like he used to. to.

“I'm back at McDonald's,” Charles Olsen, who has a severe milk allergy, told The Washington Post this week. “But I no longer trust McDonald's to follow any order details like not including cheese.

Olsen went into an anaphylaxis reaction after taking a bite of Mickey D's famous burger, according to a recently filed lawsuit. He said the accident led to him being taken to hospital where he thought he “may not make it.”

“Now I just order fries and a regular burger, with nothing on it,” he said. “Just the pie and the bun.” “I can’t risk that happening again,” he said.

Olsen also said this week that he still avoids eating out at most restaurants for nearly three years to the date of the nerve-wracking incident, which the 28-year-old explained began as a “casual night out” with friends, where he ordered from one of his “restaurants.” “To places.”

He said he made his usual “no cheese” order on Door Dash as he had done “several times.” When the food arrived and he opened his burger, there was no indication that the order had been messed up.

“When I got my food, I opened the burger, and it looked the same as it always did when I ordered it. I didn't see any cheese melting on the sides,” Olsen said in written answers through his attorney. “I just assumed it was like every time I'd eaten there before.”

But he said he soon suffered a reaction that quickly became worse.

“I was frustrated that McDonald's got the order wrong,” he said. “But as my symptoms worsened, I started to worry, and realized how bad it was.

“When I felt my throat closing up and it became difficult to breathe, I actually thought I might not be able to.”

Olsen and his girlfriend said they rushed to the hospital in an Uber because they thought the ambulance might take a long time. About a dozen doctors and nurses surrounded him, and he was given a mixture of epinephrine, Benadryl and steroids before needing to be intubated, according to his account.

His legal team said the order came from the McDonald's restaurant at 355 Eighth Ave., which has since closed.

McDonald's declined to comment when reached about the lawsuit earlier this month, but sent a statement from the franchise owner saying the owner is taking the complaint “seriously” and is reviewing the claims.

Olsen's friend, Alexandra DiBenedetto, told The Post that the ordeal was “terrifying.”

“Having to watch him suffer in the way he was behaving was absolutely horrific, and it kept getting more horrific as the reaction progressed,” she said.

“It's never easy to watch someone you love suffer, let alone fight for their life,” she added. “I was up all night terrified just watching him and making sure everything was okay.”

On top of cautiously sticking to a nice burger from the Golden Arches for now, Olsen also avoids restaurants that might serve too much cheese. He said he mostly goes to Asian restaurants, because they don't use a lot of cheese or dairy products.

“I hope my story raises awareness about how serious food allergies are. Something has to be done,” he said. “Something has to be done to make sure this doesn’t happen to anyone else. Staff need better training. Restaurants can do better. Restaurants owe it to their customers to perform better.

His lawyer, Juri Lang, stressed that restaurants need to listen better to their customers, warning that food allergies are a “matter of life and death.”

“Thank God Charles survived,” said Lange, who specializes in food allergies. “This traumatic event could have become a terrible tragedy.”