DuPage health investigators probing suspicious illness

Health investigators are trying to determine if there is a link to explain why at least five people from Lisle and Downers Grove became ill this weekend after eating at area restaurants and had to be taken to a hospital.

DuPage County Health Department officials say all five patients reported vomiting and diarrhea and were treated at Advocate Good Samaritan in Downers Grove. Two of them were admitted to the hospital, but they have since been released.

Lisle resident Dean Dooley said he ate lunch at a fast-food restaurant Saturday and woke up Sunday morning "feeling awful" and experiencing pains near his pancreas.

Dooley said he was hospitalized from Sunday through Tuesday and diagnosed with a strain of food poisoning.

On Wednesday, Dooley said he felt better but still was experiencing abdominal pains. He had not been in contact with the restaurant.

"You know, I went in there looking to have lunch, not to end up hospitalized for three days," he said. "I hope the health department is able to find the cause before too many more people become infected."

Two additional cases were reported Wednesday at Good Samaritan, but officials aren't sure if they're connected to the earlier incidents, health department spokesman David Hass said.

Hass said investigators have visited "more than one food establishment" as part of their probe but so far are unsure if the illnesses were triggered by food or other causes.

Preliminary lab tests came back negative for common causes of food-borne illnesses, including salmonella, and the health department is awaiting further results, he said.

At this point, he said, investigators have been unable to establish a definitive link among the people who became ill.

He said the task for "food detectives" can be complicated because "when you go back several days it's sometimes hard for people to remember everything they ate and where."

Haas said the department investigates similar outbreaks several times a year. "Sometimes it's larger and sometimes it's smaller," he said, "but it's not an uncommon thing at all."