After calling out McDonald’s drive-thru workers for being rude to them while ordering, a couple’s young son took a sip of his milkshake, leading the couple to a horrifying discovery.
The incident occurred when Jon Hansen and his partner, Jennifer Cameron, brought their four children to a McDonald’s location in Canada and tried to order food at the drive-thru. The French-speaking employees apparently took issue with Hansen ordering his food in English, and the employees were overheard by Cameron, who is fluent in French, making fun of her partner.
“Jennifer, who although being English can speak French, heard them make fun of my ordering in English and speaking in French said to them, we can hear what you are saying. The McDonald’s staff went silent,” Hansen said.
Jon Hansen completed his order, then said they waited nearly 10 minutes to receive the food at the second window after paying for it. Immediately, they noticed issues with it. The fries were cold and soggy, and the ice cream was melted, so Hansen asked them for replacements, which they received.
“Before we had left the restaurant’s parking lot, our 5-year-old son after drinking his shake said that it tasted funny. While the other two shakes tasted fine, when I took a sip of his shake it tasted what I described as being Pine-Sol. Almost immediately, my tongue started to burn,” Hansen said.
Jennifer Cameron also tasted the shake, and she experienced the same burning sensation, so Jon Hansen went inside to confront the manager. He demanded to know what was in the shake, asking the manager to taste it for herself, but she refused and offered him a replacement.
During the discussion, Cameron sampled another shake from the machine and the syrup used to make them, but both were fine. As this was happening, she saw what appeared to be a bottle of blue cleaning solution sitting right next to the machine, which was likely the source of the foul taste and burning sensation they experienced with their shake.
Soon after spotting the cleaner, the couple rushed their son to the hospital and called poison control. The young boy had intense stomach pain for the next two days, and Hansen said that his tongue didn’t stop burning until almost midnight that night. They claim the boy suffers lasting effects from ingesting whatever was in his drink, such as the inability to gain weight and differing tastes. Hansen worries he’ll have future complications as well, according to Metro News.
The couple has been in a drawn-out settlement process with McDonald’s, who tested the shake and refuses to admit what was in it, even though Hansen wants the information so that he knows what to expect with his son. McDonald’s has offered settlements up to $50,000, but they will only admit there was “trace amounts” of a “store-related compound” in the shake.
“At McDonald’s Canada, food quality and safety is our top priority and we have strict food safety policies and procedures in place to ensure our customers receive the highest quality products when they visit our restaurants. From the outset, McDonald’s has been in regular contact with the family since the alleged incident. We appreciate the parents’ desire to know what their child may have ingested and regret it has taken so long to address this situation.”
“Once again, McDonald’s just doesn’t seem to get it,” Jon Hansen said. “We want to know what our young child ingested. Please help us to get the test results. There is no reason why a responsible corporation that professes to care about families should have withheld this information from us for close to one year.”
Indeed. The couple has the right to know what was ingested. In this particular case, a lawsuit is fully warranted. Someone from one of their stores literally attempted to poison them with some sort of cleaner after being called out for being rude, yet it appears as if McDonald’s wants to take zero responsibility for what happened to this family.
