MAPLE VALLEY, Wash. -- A Maple Valley man filed a lawsuit against McDonald’s Tuesday after suffering burns to his mouth and throat after he bit into a hamburger he says was tainted with chemicals.

Joe Jackson, 65, said he couldn’t eat for four days after taking a bite from a hamburger at a McDonald’s restaurant in Maple Valley in early April 2009.

It was actually the second burger Jackson had gotten at the same McDonald's that day. The first one he said was squashed and cold, so he asked to get a fresher burger.

He said the employees reacted badly.

"He just made a smirk, sneer, shook his head,” Jackson said. “He was mad.”

After taking a bite of the burger, Jackson noticed a bad taste, tingling and stinging in his mouth, according to a news release from the Perey Law Group.

“It had a sizzling, burning pain in my lower mouth and I knew something was wrong cause I've eaten a lot of hamburgers," Jackson said.

Jackson stopped eating the hamburger and threw it away. When he woke up the next morning he had pain with blisters on the inside of his mouth and on his tongue. He could barely speak or swallow, the press released stated.

Jackson went to the emergency room for treatment of caustic burns.

He later went back to the McDonald's and a different employee told him he'd been harmed on purpose, for bringing back that first stale burger.

"He even showed me the bucket of bleach and water sitting over on the floor. He said that's the bucket of bleach that we used, that he used," Jackson said.

In his lawsuit, Jackson alleges employees placed a cleaning solution containing bleach into the hamburger.

“We gave McDonald’s the chance to take responsibility for its tainted hamburger, but their representatives offered no apology,” said Ron Perey, a lawyer from the Perey Law Group in Seattle, who represents Mr. Jackson.

Jackson is not suing the Maple Valley restaurant, but the whole McDonald's corporation. He said a burger like this not only hurt him physically, but shook his faith in a company he'd patronized for years.

KIRO 7 contacted McDonald's and they sent a written statement: “We take these matters seriously. However, we caution anyone from jumping to conclusions, without having all the facts. At this time, these are just allegations.”

Jackson said he’ll never eat a McDonald’s hamburger again.