Sigalf03 Posted July 2, 2006 Share Posted July 2, 2006 So for almost a month now my wife has had back problems. A couple weeks ago they got really bad and she went to the ER and had xrays that were fine. They diagnosed it as spasmis and gave here a bunch of drugs. It never really got better so she had an MRI done friday that showed two buldging disks (apparently they are not a huge deal but if untreated they could turn into herniated disks which is really bad???) Alright now it gets interesting. Wife, a friend, and myself are shopping at Wal-Mart that night (6:00 on a Friday night was our first mistake!). My wife is walking through the frozen food aisle and slips on a puddle and busts HARD. She landed directly on her left side and was hurting pretty bad. Now my wife is a very stubborn person and did not want to "make a bid deal out of it", however, my level head prevailed and I got a manager. We filled out a report and were sure to note in the report that there was no wet floor sign or any warning of the slippery floor. The manager said that if we needed to go the hospital to call them first. So we went home, wife took some drugs that she had been perscribed for the spasims and felt decent. After talking to several friends and family the concensious was that we had to go the ER within 24 hours whether she felt like she needed to or not. So at 5:00 sat morning we got up and I called Wal-Mart. Talked to the manager on duty (guy was a little slow) he found our paperwork and gave me an 800# that "handles all insurance matters". He then tells me that "hes pretty sure they are only open regular business hours and probably wont be able to get ahold of them until mon morning. I of course enlightened him to the fact that since the place is open 24 hrs, it is possible for there to be injuries and ER visits that are apparently "unconvenient" for Wal-Mart and happen during untraditional business hours. He suggested we use our insurance and "hes sure that they will pick up the tab later" When I asked him what if we didn't have insurance, which im sure is possible considering the mass of people that go to that damn store, he said "I dont know, I guess you would have to wait until monday! So at that point I was pretty steaming, took the guys name and info and hung up. Took the wife to the ER anyways, the Xrays didnt show anything, although they didnt show anything before so this was not a surprise to us. We told the hospital to bill Wal-Mart, which apparently they are going to. So my question really is, What sort of rights do we have in this situation? Were not trying to turn this into a huge lawsuit or anything, but do expect Wal-Mart to pick up the tab on medical bills and any time the wife has to take off work. Should we expect problems as far as "pre-existing conditions" or anything like that? Also, we are never ones to "cheat the system" or anything like that, but would a small amount of pain and suffering or punitive damages be out of the question? I know this kind of thing has to happen all the time.... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CaP'N GRuNGe Posted July 2, 2006 Share Posted July 2, 2006 We told the hospital to bill Wal-Mart, which apparently they are going to. First off, sorry to hear your wife got hurt and hope she's OK. Secondly though, I have a hard time believe a hospital would respond in this manner and just say "ok, we'll bill Wal-Mart" without any kind of legal forms being presented to them. That makes absolutely no sense to me. My best bet is if you want Wal-Mart to reimburse you after someone at the hospital who knows what they are doing sends a bill to you, you'll have to take them to court. Hope it doesn't go that far though and you'll be able to talk to someone directly from Wal-Mart and get reimbursed with no hassle.... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sigalf03 Posted July 2, 2006 Author Share Posted July 2, 2006 First off, sorry to hear your wife got hurt and hope she's OK. Secondly though, I have a hard time believe a hospital would respond in this manner and just say "ok, we'll bill Wal-Mart" without any kind of legal forms being presented to them. That makes absolutely no sense to me. My best bet is if you want Wal-Mart to reimburse you after someone at the hospital who knows what they are doing sends a bill to you, you'll have to take them to court. Hope it doesn't go that far though and you'll be able to talk to someone directly from Wal-Mart and get reimbursed with no hassle.... You know thats pretty much what happened and yea I thought it was weird at the time, but It was really early so could have misread what the nurse said. We turned in our insurance infomtion when we got there and at the end when we were checking out the nurse said something about sending something to wall-mart. Im sure my wife can find out what that was all about on monday, she works at the hospital. Thanks for your concern, were crossing our fingers Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Beaumont Posted July 2, 2006 Share Posted July 2, 2006 Here are my thoughts: 1) You have no real "rights", other than the right to file a lawsuit and take Wal-Mart to court under a premesis liability suit. Anything they voluntarily do for you is gravy. Wal-Mart faces tons of premesis liability claims all the time. They are generally very aggressive litigators. I would suspect they may throw you a bone as to the ER visits just to keep you happy and hope you wont press a claim, but I would not count on it and they almost certainly will pull the voluntary payment plug if expenses become significant ... 2) I would bet that under Kansas law, you will need to be able to show that the puddle had been there for a long enough time that the Wal-Mart people should have seen it and cleaned it up before the accident. This is generally very hard to prove. Premesis liability cases are very hard to make ... 3) The most important thing right now is getting your wife to a doctor who can evaluate her to make sure there is no permanent aggravation of her problems ... x-rays only show bone so they will not show whether her discs are further bulging or have herniated. It is likely your wife will have an MRI if her pain continues. Focus on medical treatment now because you should have at least several months to determine if you need to press a lawsuit. 4) Cases with pre-existing conditions are always a bit more problematic. Persuading a jury to award $$$ for a back injury when the person's back was already messed up is a delicate matter. A lot of it depends on maintaining credibility and not overreaching ... Good luck ... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Furd Posted July 2, 2006 Share Posted July 2, 2006 Here are my thoughts: 1) You have no real "rights", other than the right to file a lawsuit and take Wal-Mart to court under a premesis liability suit. Anything they voluntarily do for you is gravy. Wal-Mart faces tons of premesis liability claims all the time. They are generally very aggressive litigators. I would suspect they may throw you a bone as to the ER visits just to keep you happy and hope you wont press a claim, but I would not count on it and they almost certainly will pull the voluntary payment plug if expenses become significant ... 2) I would bet that under Kansas law, you will need to be able to show that the puddle had been there for a long enough time that the Wal-Mart people should have seen it and cleaned it up before the accident. This is generally very hard to prove. Premesis liability cases are very hard to make ... 3) The most important thing right now is getting your wife to a doctor who can evaluate her to make sure there is no permanent aggravation of her problems ... x-rays only show bone so they will not show whether her discs are further bulging or have herniated. It is likely your wife will have an MRI if her pain continues. Focus on medical treatment now because you should have at least several months to determine if you need to press a lawsuit. 4) Cases with pre-existing conditions are always a bit more problematic. Persuading a jury to award $$$ for a back injury when the person's back was already messed up is a delicate matter. A lot of it depends on maintaining credibility and not overreaching ... Good luck ... +1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AtomicCEO Posted July 2, 2006 Share Posted July 2, 2006 2) I would bet that under Kansas law, you will need to be able to show that the puddle had been there for a long enough time that the Wal-Mart people should have seen it and cleaned it up before the accident. This is generally very hard to prove. Premesis liability cases are very hard to make ... Walmart has security tapes to protect themselves against false accustations of premises liability. I'm pretty sure those same tapes would show how long the puddle had been there. I bet Walmart is looking at them right now. I don't know what steps he could take to get access to them to prove his case though. I imagine Walmart holds security tapes for 2 weeks to a month... if you are thinking of a lawsuit, you'd better get a lawyer to official request that security footage before it is recycled. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Squeegiebo Posted July 2, 2006 Share Posted July 2, 2006 What Beaumont said. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chargerz Posted July 3, 2006 Share Posted July 3, 2006 Just from a medical point of view, you did the right thing by taking her to the ER after her fall. The x-ray should have showed any obvious broken bones, but if your wife's pain worsens in the near future, further workup should be done (repeat MRI, etc.). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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