Doing your duty while not making lawyers rich.
 

A few days ago I had to use the bathroom inside a Villages' store before shopping. I opened the stall and danced around blood splatter on the floor along with the slight indication of feces. It was difficult to get around but I managed. Luckily for me a store employee was washing his hands when I was coming out of the area having to place my feet carefully. I told him there was blood in there and it looked like he quietly told a supervisor. I went shopping but did get some curious looks from a few store employees. Or, maybe I was altering my perception with my expectations as I assuming that this bathroom mess might be a topic of discussion among them. And they might have thought I was the one with the pressing medical problem. It also becomes a legal problem for the store if they do not act quickly to clean up the potential hazard for bathroom users.

I had not seen anyone who looked like they had just come into the store to use the bathroom and would have been on their way out as I was coming into the store.

I had told the store employee who had just washed his hands that I did not know where the blood came from.


Poop happens in even the nicest of stores.

We did cover slip and falls in my Torts course at the U of Minnesota Law School. But I am not in the habit of aiding lawyers . I did feel I had a duty to find a store employee and tell him or her about the liability risk in the restroom.

Making lawyers rich? Now that rich:bowdown:

I have seen lawyer's advertising aimed at slip-and-fall cases. I do hope Villages' stores record public areas for nabbing con people who are making messes so that they can then fall and then sue.

Serious medical problems in store bathrooms are probably a problem here in the Villages.

I do feel for the person this must have happened to in that store . He must have left the store quietly. If that had been me I might have called 911 knowing that I would sometime soon be getting a bill for the ambulance.

You did the right thing.

It seemed like someone would slip on that blood unless they just turned around and tried to go somewhere else.

There was maybe about 4 ounces of blood on the floor in that toilet stall. You would have needed gloves and a mask to clean it up properly. I did see what looked like a clean up person pushing a large cabinet on wheels to go clean this up. This was while I was doing my shopping.


I have been wondering if Florida personal injury law cases put a duty to report messes in public places where there is a reasonable expectation that someone would fall?

Thanks OP for notifying employee.

I needed to do that. And thankfully he had a store shirt on . I did still ask him if he worked at that store. He did say he worked there. He then went directly to a floor supervisor.

A few years ago and at another store there was a long trail of poop shoe prints in the bathroom but it had dried and you could walk easily around it. A group of us were a bit shocked that no one had reported it. Assuming that was the case.

One of the people said he would report it.

Maybe it's just me but I avoid public restrooms, I would only use one in case of an emergency. If I opened the door and saw blood and feces on the floor, I would not try to step around it. I would go to the store manager alert them of the situation and ask if they had another facility.

acute UTI .... call a urologist

I have only used a public restroom in the Villages once, and that was before I moved here and I was ill while touring the Villages with a relative. I agree with you.

I do use public bathrooms, if you have to go and you’re away from home there isn’t much choice. But I agree with you on not entering a public stall in that condition. Thinking the same: I wouldn’t even enter.

A responsible person (which we should all be at our age) should do the best they can to clean up their bio-hazard and safety-hazard mess; unless medically unable to.

Then tell an employee on the way out with a so sorry I made a freakin' mess, and I tried to clean it the best I could.
So sorry, it happens.

Blood Bourne pathogens
 

I use to teach a class to the corpsman on blood Bourne pathogens . The kit I sold was in every building at Great Lakes naval training center . The kit included, mask , googles , gloves , gown, booties , hair covering and a powder to apply that would absorb blood. All precautions.
OSHA requires a clean up kit for all this .

Good to know.


I belief all the other toilets in this bathroom were in use when I entered the largest stall that also has its own sink. I did need to go. And the blood was such that I could step between it. Carefully though.


The store employee I told just looked in there and then reported the mess to the closest manager.

Yuck!!! TMI

It probably happens here in the Villages more often than you would like because of the average age of the people living here.


Basically I just hope to get the person with the medical problem to tell someone about it before the leave the restroom.

Not sure what the point is. I've had some experience with the American legal system. Reported dirty bathroom is far cleaner than my experience. The US has more attornies per capita than any other industrialized nation. We also have more law suits. The question IS, which comes first the chicken or the egg? Law school? Training to argue both sides of the same issue depending on who is PAYING the bill.

There was a recent ad for a lawyer on TV and I managed came on and was pitching their legal services in case you had fallen recently at your employer's place of business. I just thought it was easier to clean up the mess before lawyers get involved.


Some of my fellow U of MN Law School Class of 1989 graduates seem to be doing very valuable work in many areas.