A San Jose doctor suing a Los Gatos restaurant she accused of burning her internally with a spicy “Dragon Balls” dish has a new lawyer, but just lost a bid to delay the trial, set to start August 25.
In July 2023, neurologist Harjasleen Walia sued Coup de Thai restaurant, claiming she “incurred permanent injuries and will forever be damaged” by the $11 chicken-meatball dish at the downtown Los Gatos restaurant. The appetizer burned Walia’s vocal cords, esophagus and the inside of her right nostril, the lawsuit filed in in Santa Clara County Superior Court alleged.
Walia is seeking unspecified damages, plus medical expenses and compensation for purportedly lost earnings. Coup de Thai in an October 2023 court filing denied Walia’s allegations or said it did not injure her.
In May, Walia and her lawyer parted ways and she began representing herself, but early last month she obtained new legal representation. Last week, lawyers for Walia and the restaurant submitted a joint request to Judge Evette Pennypacker to delay the trial till March 2.
The request noted that Walia had a new attorney, and in court filings, the lawyer argued that Walia needed more time to familiarize him with her case and possibly pursue a settlement through a mediator.
On Monday, Pennypacker shot down the request, saying the trial date was known when Walia obtained her new lawyer. And, Pennypacker wrote in her three-sentence order, “There is ample time before trial to engage in settlement discussions.”
Walia, a headache and brain-injury specialist at HeadacheAwayMD Brain & Spine Center in west San Jose, ate at Coup de Thai in July 2021, the lawsuit said. She ordered Dragon Balls, advertised as spicy, and asked her server to have it made with less spice because “she does not tolerate spicy foods,” the lawsuit claimed. The server told her the chef would make the dish less spicy, the lawsuit alleged.
Soon after tucking into the dish, Walia “felt her entire mouth, the roof of her mouth, her tongue, her throat and her nose burn like fire,” and she started coughing, the lawsuit claimed.
Walia started to lose her voice and was diagnosed with internal “chemical burns” from the chili peppers in the Dragon Balls, the lawsuit alleged.
The lawsuit fingered the Thai “bird’s eye” chili as the ingredient that made Walia’s Dragon Balls allegedly “unfit for human consumption.” The restaurant’s owner, chef, server and others involved with the dish “failed to take precautions by consulting with health officials or emergency service personnel regarding the risks associated with serving too much Thai chili in an appetizer like Dragon Balls,” the lawsuit claimed.
Soon after the lawsuit was filed, a supervisor at Coup de Thai told this news organization that the restaurant had never previously had a diner say they had been burned by a dish and needed medical attention. Dragon Balls cannot be made in a “mild” version because the chili is inside the balls, the supervisor said, and diners wanting Dragon Balls but saying they cannot handle spicy foods are usually encouraged to try something else, the supervisor said.
A doctor at the Washington, D.C.-based National Capital Poison Center told this news organization earlier that eating Thai chilis — spicier than cayenne peppers but not as hot as habaneros — can irritate the mouth and throat and cause nausea and heartburn. However, said Dr. Kelly Johnson-Arbor, Thai chilis “are not associated with permanent tissue damage.”
Walia’s lawsuit also accused the restaurant of failing to train staff “to serve Thai iced tea or some other dairy-based product if a customer had a bad reaction to spice intensity.”