P
PeteH
Guest
Two weeks ago, at my mother's favorite restaurant, my wife, three small children, and my mother and I sat down for an early dinner. The waitress took our beverage orders, and my wife ordered ice water.
She shared a sip with our two-year old son, and then, being very thirsty after a 3 hour drive to my mother's house, sucked down a quick drink through the straw.
When I got back to the table, she handed me the glass and said, "This tastes like chlorine."
I sipped some from the glass, and it burned, so I immediately spit it out. I took it back to the kitchen, and told them, this has a really strong chlorine taste.
The kitchen staff told me the glass had mistakenly gotten filled with a disinfecting solution. It turns out the waitress had filled the glass with water they used for cleaning. How, we never found out, but that she had done it was unmistakable and undisputed.
The kitchen manager started to shout at the waitress, "You give them wrong water, you could kill customer!"
(BTW, this was an Asian restaurant, and the waitress was new and spoke hesitant English.)
To cut a long story short, we finished eating, and left. Our daughter said the two year-old had spit out the "water," he acted normal, and I thought that my wife had only sipped a little, and would be fine.
After we returned home, however, she felt a burning in her throat and stomach. This continued -- and continues to this day, although somewhat abated.
A week after the incident, she (finally!) called her doctor. Prior to leaving for the doctor, I called down to the Asian restaurant, and was told by the manager that the solution was Clorox II and water. The manager also invited us to send any medical bills to the restaurant.
The doctor put my wife on a regimen of double-doses of Pepcid for two weeks, with a caution to eat bland foods. The doctor also said she'd been very lucky: Had she regurgitated the Clorox, it might very well have sealed her esophagus.
As things stand now, she still has an ulcer, can't drink coffee or alcohol, or eat spicy foods.
Questions:
1. If it turns out that we would seek legal redress (if, for example, they decline to pay medical bills, or her condition worsens), what, if anything, should we be doing NOW? Is there any documentation we should collect?
2. How do personal injury lawyers view circumstances like these? Should we be seeking compensation, and if so, for what, and on what terms? Or, would that just make us overly litigious [derogatory term of your choice]?
She shared a sip with our two-year old son, and then, being very thirsty after a 3 hour drive to my mother's house, sucked down a quick drink through the straw.
When I got back to the table, she handed me the glass and said, "This tastes like chlorine."
I sipped some from the glass, and it burned, so I immediately spit it out. I took it back to the kitchen, and told them, this has a really strong chlorine taste.
The kitchen staff told me the glass had mistakenly gotten filled with a disinfecting solution. It turns out the waitress had filled the glass with water they used for cleaning. How, we never found out, but that she had done it was unmistakable and undisputed.
The kitchen manager started to shout at the waitress, "You give them wrong water, you could kill customer!"
(BTW, this was an Asian restaurant, and the waitress was new and spoke hesitant English.)
To cut a long story short, we finished eating, and left. Our daughter said the two year-old had spit out the "water," he acted normal, and I thought that my wife had only sipped a little, and would be fine.
After we returned home, however, she felt a burning in her throat and stomach. This continued -- and continues to this day, although somewhat abated.
A week after the incident, she (finally!) called her doctor. Prior to leaving for the doctor, I called down to the Asian restaurant, and was told by the manager that the solution was Clorox II and water. The manager also invited us to send any medical bills to the restaurant.
The doctor put my wife on a regimen of double-doses of Pepcid for two weeks, with a caution to eat bland foods. The doctor also said she'd been very lucky: Had she regurgitated the Clorox, it might very well have sealed her esophagus.
As things stand now, she still has an ulcer, can't drink coffee or alcohol, or eat spicy foods.
Questions:
1. If it turns out that we would seek legal redress (if, for example, they decline to pay medical bills, or her condition worsens), what, if anything, should we be doing NOW? Is there any documentation we should collect?
2. How do personal injury lawyers view circumstances like these? Should we be seeking compensation, and if so, for what, and on what terms? Or, would that just make us overly litigious [derogatory term of your choice]?