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WILKES-BARRE — The parents of a 10-year-old girl who allegedly fell ill after eating pizza misrepresented by a local restaurant as “gluten free” has sued the business and an area hospital for negligence on allegations the medical center’s staff made the family wait for nearly three hours while the food caused the girl to vomit blood.
Samuel and Victoria Bayle, of Edinboro, Erie County, are seeking monetary damages against Grotto Pizza and Geisinger Wyoming Valley Medical Center in Plains Township, as well as doctors and nurses at the hospital, on behalf of their daughter, Sydney Bayle.
The girl was born with Celiac Disease, according to the complaint.
The complaint, filed Tuesday in Luzerne County Court, says the girl, now 11, became “violently ill” after the family ordered a “gluten free” pizza from Grotto’s Edwardsville location on July 7, 2014. She remained sick for over two hours before the family took her to Geisinger just after 10 p.m.
There, the complaint says, Sydney Bayle continued to “throw up chunks of blood” while family members repeatedly went to the front desk asking when the child would see a doctor. They left the hospital at 1:11 a.m. without “being seen, diagnosed, or treated by a physician or medical professional,” says the complaint, filed by Wilkes-Barre-based attorneys Robert T. Panowicz and Leanna C. Blazosek.
“(Geisinger) hold themselves out as offering emergency medical care to all members of the community and through their actions invite people to utilize their emergency facility with the implied promise they will be treated promptly and effectively,” the complaint says.
Geisinger had not yet received the complaint as of Tuesday afternoon.
“We will look into the allegations once we are formally served with the complaint,” said Cindy Serge, an attorney for Geisinger Health System.
Grotto co-owner Armand Mascioli could not be reached for comment Tuesday afternoon.
Panowicz, however, said Tuesday that Grotto acknowledged to him they “made a mistake.”
“She was assured it was (gluten free), and it was not,” he said.
After leaving the hospital, the family took the girl to a relative’s home in West Wyoming where her mother helped ease her symptoms, Panowicz said. The episode took a toll on the girl’s body and the family’s concern now, he said, is whether they can trust other restaurants who advertise gluten free food.
“She could never be sure,” he said.
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