While Shopping at Michaels Craft store my wife went to go change my daughter in the women's restrooms. The restrooms are located in a hallway on the front side of the inside store, hallway measuring about 4 foot wide by 16 feet in depth with a dead at the end. In order to get to the women's restroom you must pass through the men's restrooms first then it is the water fountains in the middle against the wall and then you get to the women's restrooms which are last. So my wife went to go change my 4 month old daughters diaper in the women's restroom while I was waiting for her outside of the hall way looking at some items. There was a lady waiting for her daughter as well outside of the hall way of the restrooms. So after a few minutes of waiting I look towards the lady with a scared impression on her face saying out loud "be careful" and then running toward the restroom hallway. I could not see what happened because I was in an isle until I thought in my head what if my wife fell and sure enough my wife had fallen with her holding my baby daughter on wet tile in front of the men's restroom as exiting the hallway. The tile was wet because the toilet was overflowing. As I rushed to my wife I asked if she had dropped the baby, she said no she was able to hold on to her as she fell on her knees and landing on her back. There were two witness, one of them had gotten the baby after she fell down and the other went to go get help. One of the witness called for help with the cashier and the other was with my wife still on the floor not able to get up because she was hurt. There was no wet signs or carpets on the floor. First to arrive on scene was the manager, then the store manager came a few minutes after. None of the staff or supervisors bother to ask if my wife or baby were okay. They started clearing the area and started mopping the water up placing a bench to block off the area. I told the store manager if we may make an incident report and he said first we need everybody to move away the area for right now. So then I asked the other manager and she wrote down our information and I was able to have them get the information of one of the 2 witnesses that were there. My wife's knee starting swelling right away after the incident occurred so we just got our merchandise and paid without finishing doing what we had to do, so that messed up our whole day or shall I say week since she could not do much walking. My wife went to the doctor the next day because she was in pain from her knee and felt very sore from her back, they took an x-ray of her knee. She bruised up from her knee and I was able to take picture of her injury. It's been a couple of weeks already and they claims department has sent us a form for listing the doctor she went to and they want her social security to find out how much she makes at work and a release form to view her medical records of the injury. Doctor told her if it continues to hurt that she might have to have an MRI done, hopefully God willing nothing is wrong though. So my question is this, is this considered negligence from the store if water was coming from under the men's restroom into the hallway causing my wife to slip and while holding the baby? The hall way was not wet before we entered the hallway because I had walked my wife to the middle of the hallway with no water on the floor and as she got out leaving the hallway it was wet and continued to get worse as she was still on the floor. We really don't want to get a lawyer as well, will have difficult time for them trying to pay for the doctors bill. My wife has insurance but doctors say the insurance might not pay for it since it happened at the store, that the store would have to pay for the medical bills. The claims dept for Michaels Craft Store said they were going to do an investigation on this incident. I need some advice please. Thank You
If it's personal advice please e-mail me at rolextx@yahoo.com
bigsis
DO NOT give ANYONE any information on your wife's income or her SS number or anything else. Contact an attorney ASAP. As a nurse I can tell you that the knee injury and possible back injury can cause her problems in the future. Even if you are not "in in for the money"- as some would try to claim you need to protect yourself and your wife's possible future problems. My experience also stems from an old fall that I had on a stone step (ironically with my 3 month old grand daughter in my arms) that caused swelling and pain for a few days. 11 years later I am now facing surgery on my right knee from a torn tendon that did not heal properly and I was-at the time of my fall- trying to be nice to the people who's steps I fell on. Their insurance would have covered my and any future problems I had IF I had only sought medical care and filed the proper paperwork.
Good luck
Orignal From: Slip and Fall Advice Needed?
Post a Comment