Family Can't Escape Vicious Food-Poisoning Cycle

You can forgive friends of the Erdal family if they skip the next dinner invitation. After four members of the family in northern Turkey suffered food poisoning severe enough to land them in a hospital for a week, they decided to throw a "gratitude dinner" to celebrate their recovery. Two dozen attendees fell ill from ... you guessed it. "Food poisoning became our nightmare," patriarch Alattin Erdal tells the Hurriyet Daily News. The Erdals had sacrificed an animal (the type was not disclosed) to thank God for their recovery and served it to their friends.

"We don’t get it," Erdal says. "First we were poisoned and then sacrificed an animal for God as a sign of gratitude for gaining our health back," only to have 25 people end up at a hospital in Tekirdag province, with four in intensive care, per Hurriyet. The Erdals were initially sickened after a meal cooked by matriarch Asiye Erdal, who now she says she'll be more careful in the kitchen. (More food poisoning stories.)