Thankful Thanksgiving - Case Study Example

So the Gibsons were discharged by the hospital after being treated as outpatients and hence they went home without any elaborate treatment. The factors which led to this unpleasant situation for the Gibsons are that the cutting board that they had used for preparing and stuffing the turkey was not cleaned properly after it had been used. Further, they had used it to prepare carrot sticks, celery sticks stuffed with cream cheese and other vegetables to be served raw as a part of the relish tray, without first cleaning the board properly.

This was a capital blunder as the salmonella bacteria is found in uncooked poultry especially turkey and mainly spreads by cross-contamination. This led to this mishap as the contents of the relish tray, namely the carrot sticks, the celery sticks stuffed with cream cheese, and the other vegetables were infected with this pathogen by cross-contamination. To compound the felony, leaving the turkey for such a long period on the kitchen counter was inviting trouble as it is not recommended to leave turkey meat exposed to the elements as any pathogen present in the turkey multiplies rapidly at the 40F to 140F room temperature.

The salmonella species is especially vicious in as much as that it can infect people even if present in small numbers. Also, the gravy was heated before being poured on the turkey meat. The Gibsons erred in not having removed the leftover turkey meat from the bones as soon as possible after the meal and then subsequently refrigerating it. Another major blunder that the Gibsons committed was that they did not take cognizance of the fact that the wings and legs of the turkey could have been refrigerated as they were, but any leftover meat on the body of the turkey should have been removed as the turkey had been stuffed.

When the adults started eating this contaminated food in the evening, about 40960 viable pathogens are estimated to have been present in their diet. The pathogens in even such small numbers are capable of infecting healthy individuals and this is borne out by the events that took place on that Thanksgiving Day. The foregoing illustrates that meat and poultry should be prepared and preserved carefully, as it gets contaminated very easily.