Injured in doctors office!

[SnowCajun]

What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? Washington

On a bright sunny day about five months ago I walked into my doctors office, the waiting room runs along the windows facing the sidewalk and is narrow with chairs only on one side. The receptionist had been talked into allowing a father and son patient parking their expensive bicycles inside the waiting room. When I entered into the darker room from the sunny outside I was unable to see that one of the bicycle wheels was sticking about three or four inches into the entrance doorway.

My shoe got caught into the spokes and it was a tumblethon of craziness with me ending up with my knee through the spokes of the bicycle and several plastic pieces laying around. I also had a puncture in my face from a brake cable wire about a half inch under my left eye. I was lucky it missed my eye, that part could have been much worse.

I went to the hospital with two strained ligaments in my knee and also my thumb, the thumb healed fast but not the knee, it's still giving me fits. Luckily I have a power wheelchair due to degenerative arthritis issues, but my doctor had finally found medication that let me walk with the arthritis pain, but now this bicycle issue has messed up my knee to the point where I stuck in the wheelchair. After about three months my doctor wanted me to walk down the street and exercise my knee, while doing so my knee gave out letting me fall into the corner of a brick building reinjuring my knee and making a bloody mess out of my face requiring stitches.
http://home.comcast.net/~snowcajun/stitches.jpg

Because I'm disabled and on Social Security Disability from a job related injury I can't find an attorney who wants to do a thing for me, plus they all say it's not worth the effort since Washington is not a punitive damage state. How can people injure someone to this degree and not be responsible? Secondly the doctors office insurance is trying to suggest that the fall and reinjuring my knee is not related to my first injury, of course it's related, I'd have never been in that situation had I not been injured in the first place!

Any suggestions please?What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)?

 

[Zigner]

You walked when you could not see...

 

[SnowCajun]

You walked when you could not see...

I pretty much expected that response. The black bicycle was pretty much camouflaged by shadows and the darkness of the doorway, and also by the brightness of the sun. The doctors office had bicycle racks outside within a few days and a new policy of no bicycles inside the building, not even by staff members from that point forward, and they have told me they should never have allowed them to have been parked inside in such a narrow space in the first place. I've gone in that door fourty times over the years, there has never been anything there before so it wasn't expected!

 

[Zigner]

I pretty much expected that response. The black bicycle was pretty much camouflaged by shadows and the darkness of the doorway, and also by the brightness of the sun. The doctors office had bicycle racks outside within a few days and a new policy of no bicycles inside the building, not even by staff members from that point forward, and they have told me they should never have allowed them to have been parked inside in such a narrow space in the first place. I've gone in that door fourty times over the years, there has never been anything there before so it wasn't expected!

At night I turn off the living room light before heading to bed. I have to walk across the living room to get to the switch. I've probably walked that path thousands of times. Once the light is off, making it dark, I walk very slowly and carefully...even though I had just crossed the same stretch seconds before with no obstacles.

 

[bobbybats]

if your in a supermarket and slipped on some oil that a customer spilled .... pretty sure the store is liable.
try talking to a lawyer

 

[Zigner]

if your in a supermarket and slipped on some oil that a customer spilled .... pretty sure the store is liable.
try talking to a lawyer

Really...so let's say I spill oil and the person walking 3 paces behind me slips on it. How is the store liable?

 

[SnowCajun]

At night I turn off the living room light before heading to bed. I have to walk across the living room to get to the switch. I've probably walked that path thousands of times. Once the light is off, making it dark, I walk very slowly and carefully...even though I had just crossed the same stretch seconds before with no obstacles.

So are you suggesting I should just forget it, that they have insurance for nothing and I should ignore the pain and suffering I've endured all these months. That my being stuck in a wheelchair instead of enjoying the freedom of walking around freely and instead being stuck taking buses because my vehicle won't hold a power wheelchair? Are you saying that's all insignificant even though I was injured on their property? Should I send them flowers also and a thank you card too?

I'm not looking to get rich, I'm not looking at this like it's a lottery winning ticket or something, but I do feel I should be duly compensated for being injured on their property because a receptionist allowed two bicycles to be parked in an area hardly big enough to hold eight people and in a place and way that caused someone to trip over it and be injured because it was placed in a way in where it wasn't seen upon entering the building. Don't you have homeowners insurance to protect yourself from accidents, no one did anything on purpose here but accidents do happen and I was injured on their property.

 

[bobbybats]

Really...so let's say I spill oil and the person walking 3 paces behind me slips on it. How is the store liable?

well he didnt walk behind the guy with the bike into the office and then trip on it.. if someone trips on a rug entering my home .. arent i liable ?

 

[Zigner]

So are you suggesting I should just forget it, that they have insurance for nothing and I should ignore the pain and suffering I've endured all these months. That my being stuck in a wheelchair instead of enjoying the freedom of walking around freely and instead being stuck taking buses because my vehicle won't hold a power wheelchair? Are you saying that's all insignificant even though I was injured on their property? Should I send them flowers also and a thank you card too?

I'm not looking to get rich, I'm not looking at this like it's a lottery winning ticket or something, but I do feel I should be duly compensated for being injured on their property because a receptionist allowed two bicycles to be parked in an area hardly big enough to hold eight people and in a place and way that caused someone to trip over it and be injured because it was placed in a way in where it wasn't seen upon entering the building. Don't you have homeowners insurance to protect yourself from accidents, no one did anything on purpose here but accidents do happen and I was injured on their property.

What I am saying is that you will have to overcome your own negligence in blindly walking in to a place in which you admittedly couldn't even see where you were going.

 

[Zigner]

well he didnt walk behind the guy with the bike into the office and then trip on it.. if someone trips on a rug entering my home .. arent i liable ?

You're comparing apples to zucchinis.

Your blanket statement that an entity is automatically liable when somebody gets hurt on their property is false.

 

[bobbybats]

heres something i quickly found about slipping in a store ...
East Tennessee Premises Liability Attorneys ? Sevierville Injury Lawyers

if the entrance is obstructed , shouldnt it be the offices responsibility to fix the obstruction before someone trips ?

example " hey guy, move your friggn bike out of the door way"

 

[Zigner]

heres something i quickly found about slipping in a store ...
East Tennessee Premises Liability Attorneys ? Sevierville Injury Lawyers

if the entrance is obstructed , shouldnt it be the offices responsibility to fix the obstruction before someone trips ?

example " hey guy, move your friggn bike out of the door way"

Wow, TN and WA merged? Amazing!

 

[SnowCajun]

What I am saying is that you will have to overcome your own negligence in blindly walking in to a place in which you admittedly couldn't even see where you were going.

I've got a good idea that if you accidently missed a stop sign and t-boned a car you'd use your insurance to fix your car, and the other persons, instead of "overcoming your own negligence and paying out of your own pocket for blindly not paying attention! Do you practice what you preach?

 

[bobbybats]

Wow, TN and WA merged? Amazing!

with your 25,000 posts here i thought you would have commented about the more relative statement of :

"if the entrance is obstructed , shouldnt it be the offices responsibility to fix the obstruction before someone trips ? "

but you go for the "heeyuck, this isnt TN" response

im guessing you tried for "Zinger" but ended up with "Zigner"


heres one in WA , deals with slips and falls ...
Slip & Fall Accidents Lawyers Seattle WA | Premises Liability Attorneys Washington State

 

[Zigner]

Good job on finding an ambulance chaser (figure of speech) in WA. Now, please show how an entity is automatically responsible if somebody falls on their premises.

I'm feeling a bit of Bugs Bunny coming on here...

with your 25,000 posts here i thought you would have commented about the more relative statement of :

"if the entrance is obstructed , shouldnt it be the offices responsibility to fix the obstruction before someone trips ? "

but you go for the "heeyuck, this isnt TN" response

im guessing you tried for "Zinger" but ended up with "Zigner"


heres one in WA , deals with slips and falls ...
Slip & Fall Accidents Lawyers Seattle WA | Premises Liability Attorneys Washington State