When parents take their children to a fast-food restaurant, they never expect the cheap and easy meal to leave their children permanently disabled. Unfortunately for the parents of a then-7-year-old Australian girl, that’s exactly what happened. According to The Sydney Morning Herald, Monika Samaan fell seriously ill after eating a chicken wrap known as a “Chicken Twister” at a Villawood KFC in 2005. The wrap left the young girl in a six-month coma and eventually resulted in brain damage that has left her confined to a wheelchair and unable to speak.
Her parents sued the restaurant in a trial that’s dragged on through the years. In 2010, Amanwial Samaan, Monika’s father, told the court that he and his wife Hanna, son Abanou and Monika all fell ill with vomiting and diarrhea after sharing the Twister with Monika. Unlike her, however, they all recovered from apparent salmonella poisoning.
Today, a judge ordered the fast food giant to pay the Samaan family $8 million in damages plus court costs. A lawyer for the Samaan family said the $8 million was needed to care for Monika, now 14, and her basic needs.
