A Cambria girl will have to be tested for at least a year after the family discovered human blood on their Burger King order from a Getzville location last week.
Tiffany Floyd contacted the Niagara County Department of Health with the news that her 4-year-old daughter had eaten food that had human blood in it. Her burger also had blood on it.
Scott Ecker of the department of health confirmed the call and said that that Floyd was connected with the Niagara County Nursing Division.
“One of our technicians connected the call because of the mother’s description of the blood in the food,” he said.
Ecker also said that the manager of the Burger King was called and he said an employee had cut their finger, “through the glove,” and didn’t know he was bleeding “that badly.” Then it was determined that the restaurant was in Erie County and the NCDOH had no jurisdiction and it was referred to the Erie County Department of Health.
“Though we did not receive a complaint from the public regarding this incident, based on news reports, our sanitarians did log a complaint and a sanitarian inspected the facility today,” Kara Kane, spokesperson for ECDOH, wrote in an email. “No critical or non-critical violations were found at the time of inspection.”
Floyd said that she was told that she had to wait 30 days to test her daughter for possible diseases, as any infection would be undetectable before that, and then tested monthly for a year. She wishes that the person making the food would also be tested to reduce the need for Matayla, or “Tay,” from having to be tested so many times, or at least soothe Floyd’s own anxiety.
Floyd had also taken to TikTok to spread the word of the restaurant’s bloody mistake. She noted she sounded calm, but that was six hours after seeing the wrapper on her burger and hearing her daughter say, “I don’t like ketchup,” which turned out to be drops of human blood on her french fries.
Floyd said her daughter ate three fries and a bite of the burger after ordering the food on Friday. Currently, she is also not eating anything because she thinks all food has blood on it. For herself, even today, Floyd says she still cries after she puts her children to bed and has feelings of guilt.
“I usually check every meal she eats,” Floyd said. “The one time I didn’t check, this happens.”
Burger King also released a statement.
“We were deeply upset and concerned to learn of this incident. We have been in contact with the guest and are working with her to resolve this incident,” said a Burger King spokesperson. “This incident was the result of a team member in the restaurant who injured his finger and upon noticing immediately stepped away. We closed the restaurant over the weekend to retrain all the team members and hired an external company to complete a deep cleaning. We expect the restaurant to re-open Monday, July 29, and are fully paying team members for any lost shifts during this temporary shutdown.”
The Burger King in question did not return messages left on Monday.
Floyd said that she was called by a spokesperson and that currently, the lawyers from Burger King are waiting for her attorneys to contact them. She does not have an attorney but plans to hire one soon to find out how to proceed.
Bloodborne diseases include malaria, hepatitis and HIV.