On August 6th of this year I brought my one year old son into a Subway sandwich shop with the five dollar foot long song stuck in my head. Little did I know that the ten minutes I was in Subway would affect myself and my entire family and that Subway simply does not care. The fact that the Subway motto is "Eat Fresh" should tell you that this store runs simply by it's sandwiches and not towards the compassion of others. Subway does not care if you are going into the store with two legs and leaving with one as long as you spent that five dollars on a sandwich. The particular store that I went to was in Tigard, Oregon. I had my son on one hip, my diaper bag (which weighs close to nothing) and myself. I went to the restroom to use it before I ordered because at the time I was six months pregnant and my bladder just is not what it used to be. I went into the restroom, shut the door, turned around and slid on something so slick (soap) it was like a slip and slide. People say when you injure yourself it goes in slow motion. . . . I have to disagree. One moment I was standing and the next thing I knew I was on my butt with my son on the floor (I had dropped him but tried to cushion his fall as best as I could). For all the moms out there, you know how traumatizing it is to drop your child on a cement floor. I was visibly shaking and upset.
I went into the main part of the store where there were two people behind the counter and I told them that there was something slick in the middle of the floor and I had just fallen and dropped my child. The girl behind the counter sat with her job open and repeatedly said "Oh god, are you okay?" I said no. The girl then asked the guy behind me what he would like to order. The other girl behind the counter was on the phone and another employee came from the back and started helping another customer. They all seemed to ignore me so I left. I walked out to my car to take myself and my child to the ER and the only way I did this was because my adrenaline was pumping. As I put my son into the car the girl who had been on the phone came back out and asked me "Should I call you in a couple hours, or do you want to call us?" I looked at her, and at this point was crying, and said that I wanted to get my child and myself to the hospital to make sure we were okay. She said okay.
My son and I went to the ER where I had to go upstairs and have baby monitered before they admitted me to the ER. My mom and husband came to watch Kaden (my son) and I had to go up there alone. It is so scary to think you have hurt your unborn child. Baby monitered fine and then I had to go down to the ER where my son was checked and I was checked. The ER told me to watch my son for signs of concussion and for me to go back to the hospital if the pain became to bad. We got back to our house and by the time we made it home I was in more pain then I have ever been in. My tailbone hit the floor when I fell and there were shooting pains all up my spine almost like someone was sending an electric current up my spine somehow. So my husband packed my son in the car and took us back to the ER. At the ER the doctors told me they had to do an x-ray. They tried to shield the baby as much as possible but did tell me that because of the radiation I had to sign a consent form. The doctor there prescribed me vicoden and told me to go home and rest and to check up with my doctor the following week. Vicoden is not proven safe for pregnancy but I honestly was in so much pain at the time that I would not have been able to make it.
A week later I was still in horrible pain so I followed up with my primary care physician. We also had to make an extra appointment at my OBGYN to make sure (by ultrasound) that everything was okay. My primary care doctor sent me to physical therapy. After a couple sessions of physical therapy my therapist said he felt he was wasting my time and that we would have to start over after my pregnancy because I could not do alot of the stretches. He also wants to make sure that there is nothing else going on. They can not do this until after my pregnancy because CAT scans have to much radiation to them. So, my doctor excused me from work until after delivery due to this injury.
The day I fell my mom went into the store and asked the girls working what happened. There was a girl just getting off of work who said that she had just mopped the floor and that she had forgot to put the sign up. She told my mom she felt horrible. The girl who had run after me into the parking lot called my phone and during her message said "I wanted to apologize again, I am so, so sorry" They told my mom that we could not fill out an incident report because they do not do those and that Subway would call me the next day. The next day I called to ask for the name of the girl who had mopped the floor and the employees story changed into that they mopped the floor after I left. This was not the case because there was a wet floor sign out when I came into the Subway but it was on the opposite end of the store (nowhere near the bathrooms) and I don't see someone mopping half a restaurant at a time, especially not one this size. Upon hearing all of this we hired a lawyer.
Subways insurance company called me to ask me questions. Asking if the puddle of stuff was by the sink and soap dispenser (which it was not), if the puddle of stuff was raised or flat? (I did not put my face on the floor to check it). If the liquid was clear or not clear? (I did not check the color) A bunch of questions that really have no answer. I was suprised they did not ask me if what the liquid taste like. When you drop your child.......that is your top priority. Not checking out what you slid on when clearly it was soap from mopping the floor. Maybe the girl accidently dumped some out of the bucket that she mops out of, maybe she just overly did the middle of the floor for some reason ..........who knows?
This is where the laws come in. In a slip and fall incident you have to prove that Subway was at fault, which clearly they were. My mom was witness to what this girl was saying and I am witness to what she said on my message. The girl could have mopped before and then after to cover up her mistake of leaving a slick puddle in the middle of the floor but now she is saying something different happened and this infuriates me. This particular Subway went green for the care of the enviroment and have shown no compassion for myself, my son, and my unborn daughter. This has taken away from my life and my sons life because I can not pick him up and carry him down the stairs to go out in the sun and enjoy the summer. I can't give him hugs when my back hurts. I can't bathe him when my back hurts, There are days that I am in so much pain that I stay in my room so that I do not make him upset by him seeing mom upset. My huband has had to take off work when I am not able to manage on my own. We have lost my entire income so my husband works six days a week to pay our bills. We were going to buy our first home for our children and that has been put to halt because we can't make it without an extra income. It has ruined us. There are days my husband is upset because he hates to see me like this. I have not been able to enjoy my pregnancy (I have other complications as well) because my back feels like it is breaking. It is depressing, I cant go out and walk around because of the pain. I feel like so much has been taken away from us that a company would realize their fault and compensate us for all of this. I want to make sure that my son is covered because his doctors have said that babies are like rubber, they bounce back, but later down the road then you might realize that some damage was done. I want to make sure that my baby girl is covered if down the road a study shows that vicoden does damage the baby. They don't even have her in the claim because she is not born yet. I want to make sure that we are compensated for me if I can never go back to work because something is seriously wrong with my back. I thought that since this affected, not just me, but my entire family that Subway would admit fault, apologize and make up for it.
Instead Subway is saying that they are not at fault and that they will cover my medical expenses up to $10,000 dollars and that is it. No compenstaion for the time lost with my family, my baby girl who has not come into the world yet, my pain, my loss of work, etc. I can not tell you how stressful this is to go through all of this when pregnant. It has ruined my life and I am not willing to just blow it off. I can't believe that a company would change the story and go against a pregnant mother after knowing the damage that their neglect caused. Please, everyone out there, make your comments and suggestions below and don't go out to buy those $5 dollar foot-longs...............if you happen to hurt yourself on the property of a Subway their motto is "Eat Fresh" not to provide compassion and care for their customers.
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