A Woman Is Suing Chick-fil-A in Dallas Over a Cherry Pit She Says Gave Her a Heart Attack

Usually, if Chick-fil-A is in the news, it’s because its chief operating officer said something dumb, or because someone decided, wisely, to try to fill his bath with Polynesian Sauce. This time, though, the fried chicken chain is accused of something much weirder than a little draconian gay hate: giving a woman a heart attack by failing to properly inspect their pitted maraschino cherries.

From the jump, the story is pretty strange. According to a petition filed in the Dallas County district court this week, a woman named Cyndi Scruggs went to the Chick-fil-A restaurant in McKinney to enjoy an ice cream milkshake. Like most milkshakes, Scruggs’ was topped with a maraschino cherry and whipped cream. Like every eager milkshake drinker, Scruggs popped her cherry-on-top directly into her mouth, only to find that it still contained a large fragment of cherry pit.

Biting into an intact cherry pit caused Scruggs to fracture two teeth below the gumline, which led to infection and eventual sepsis. Soon after, Scruggs had a heart attack, which is closely linked by medical research to sepsis, an infection of the blood. The plaintiff — she survived — also recently had the two teeth extracted, and will need to undergo painful tooth implantation procedures in the near future. At the time of the incident, Scruggs was living in Plano, but she has since relocated to Parker, Colorado.

Also named in the suit is the manufacturer of the offending cherry, Brooklyn-based Dell’s Maraschino Cherries. Scruggs’ complaint alleges that the company failed to “exercise reasonable care to reduce or eliminate the pit risk, or warn the plaintiff of same.” She is seeking between $200,000 and $1 million from Chick-fil-A and Dell’s Maraschino Cherries to cover medical expenses incurred after the incident, and for physical pain, disfigurement, impairment and mental anguish.