Walmart broken kiosk, injured

[TPORI]

Oregon

Sunday, November 5th I was at Walmart with my step daughter. I parked around the side right next to one of those cart kiosks. I did not notice if the kiosk was broken at that point. Returning to my van, in the pouring rain, I walked along parallel to the kiosk rail, my basket in front of me, and tripped over a pipe sticking out of the kiosk about 5 inches high. I twisted my back when I tried to catch my fall with the basket. It turns out that the kiosk rail was separated from the base. There is no way I would have even seen the base because my basket was in front of me.

I later went to the ER when my right hand fingers went numb and my back and neck were in full spasm. The ER doc gave the vague diagnosis, basically soft tissue injury.

I did fill out a report/claim with the store manager. The next day a claims rep called me and informed me that Walmart does not cover medical. She said she would investigate and get back to me, perhaps there were camera set up in the loccation of the accident and perhpas someone hit the kiosk with their car, in which case, given the license plate number, I could get thier auto insurance to cover medical claims. I am still in pain and my fingers still numb along with other weaknesses in my body, but I have no medical insurance and refuse to rack up medical bills without any knowlege that I will later be able to pay them with any claims money. This is a catch 22, I know that I need diagnosis and treatment to support my case, yet I cannot put my family finance in such a position.

I did take pictures of the broken kiosk with my cell phone camera and two employees said that when they were in the parking lot earlier, the kiosk was not broken. The employees immediatly removed the kiosk from the parking lot.

Locally no PI seems willing to take on the case and I am thinking small claims court. Any thoughts? I know Walmart will fight and small claims is final. Perhaps that is the road better taken?

Note, last summer I was involved in an auto accident, was slammed into by a wreckless driver and went through treatment for a back injury which I finished up in early August.