Here's the letter he sent to Disney describing what happened on his visit last month:

My name is Adam Roca, and I recently visited Blizzard Beach Water Park on August 14, 2008. On one of the rides, I became ejected from my tube and stuck on the ride. In addition, one of my legs became awkwardly stuck underneath me. In attempts to free my leg and move down the slide, I applied pressure on my other leg to free myself. My ankle turned sideways and I fell down the remainder of the ride.

At the bottom of the slide, I called to my girlfriend for help. She told the lifeguard we needed help, and was ignored. Being a trained lifeguard herself, my girlfriend got into the pool to help me away from the slide. She pulled me to the stairs, where she again demanded help. The lifeguard said she was phoning someone. After several minutes, she said that someone would be coming with a wheelchair to assist us.

In the meantime, people kept coming down the slide and haphazardly running into my leg. More time passed, and the lifeguard said the wheelchair had been moved, so we had to wait longer for someone to come and help.

In total, I waited more than 15 minutes, writhing in pain at the bottom of this water slide. Once the person came with the wheelchair, I was assured that the nurse at the on-site medical center would be able to assist me.

At the center, the nurse simply asked if I was able to bear weight on my ankle. When I replied that I was not able to, she handed me a brochure and said I could go there to get X-rays. I told her that I didn't have health insurance and this wasn't an ideal solution. She said it was up to me, and that they couldn't do anything else for me. I told her I was at least hoping for some ice and maybe some ibuprofen, and she complied.

We then drove straight to Sarasota Memorial Hospital, a place where we knew I would be treated regardless of insurance status. They took X-rays and informed me my ankle was broken. I was then referred to a orthopedic doctor and set up an appointment. Within the next business day or two (either 8/15 or 8/18 around 2 pm), I called Blizzard Beach and filed an injury report and issued a complaint against the staff at the park.

At the doctor's appointment, Dr. Klein confirmed I had broken my fibula, and in addition, I tore my ligament on the other side of my ankle. He said that I would need to get surgery to heal properly so that I could walk again. I had surgery on 8/22/08 at Sarasota Memorial Hospital, and I had a metal plate permanently screwed into my leg.

I have spoken to several lawyers since the accident. They seem fairly confident that at least a claim can be made to recuperate some of the money lost due to my ever-increasing medical expenses (at the moment, they total more than $13,000). Without medical insurance and living below the poverty level, I know this serious debt will mire my possibilities in the future.

I know Disney prides itself in providing entertainment for working families that's safe and memorable. I would very much like Disney's help in this time of need. I would particularly hope Disney would take responsibility for its loyal customers while they are on its very property.

Adam, we're actually surprised Disney didn't contact you to resolve this. If your letter doesn't get a response, check out our post on how to write an Executive Email Carpet Bomb, and look here for Disney email addresses.

On Sunday, June 22, 2008 my 10-year old lab mix, Chai, sustained a severe injury from a product that the company Four Paws Inc, produces. The toy I'm referencing is the pimple ball with bell. (Item #20227-001, UPC Code 0 4566320227 9)

While chewing on the toy, a vacuum was created and it effectively sucked his tongue into the hole in the ball. From speaking with my vet, this likely occurred because there is not a second hole in the ball preventing the vacuum effect from happening. I became aware of this when Chai approached a friend at my home whimpering with the ball in his mouth. She tried unsuccessfully to remove the ball but the tongue had swollen and could not be released.

Chai was taken to the Animal Medical Center (an emergency care facility in New York City) and was treated by Dr. Nicole Spurlock to have the ball removed. Because the size of the opening on the ball was so small, all circulation to his tongue was cut off. The doctors had to sedate him in order to remove it. Once the ball was removed, his tongue swelled to the point that he could no longer put it in his mouth. Chai was sent home with care instructions and to be observed overnight for any changes.

By the following morning Chai’s tongue had swollen even more.

He was taken to his regular vet, Dr. Timnah Lee, for treatment. He was admitted and kept sedated for a period of three days during which time they were treating his wounds and waiting to determine how much of his tongue could be saved. On June 26, 2008 Chai had his tongue amputated.

He was kept in after-care for an additional three days. On Sunday June 29th I brought Chai home from the vet with a barrage of home care instructions, to last for an additional 7 days. His next visit was to have his mouth re-examined and have the feeding tube in his neck removed.

The owner says they mentioned the injury to friends and were shocked to learn that the same type of injury had happened to their dog. Now the owner is asking for a recall of the chew toy:

it is their position that there just aren't enough instances to do anything about this. I told their Insurance company's case manager that was not a good enough excuse, It was inferred that my dogs value wasn't much and that his pain and suffering don't count as he is just a piece of property.

You can read the rest of the story and check out photos of the injury (Warning: they're pretty graphic) here.

The Chai Story(Thanks, Paul!)

UPDATE: Someone who contacted the company on Chai the Dog's behalf posted this email response in the comments:

Thank you for your recent note expressing concern over the Four Paws® Pimple Ball with Bell. We were equally alarmed to learn that a dog may have injured himself while playing with this toy.

Dogs have been enjoying the Pimple Ball with Bell for more than a decade with over 500,000 units sold. In all the years this product has been on the market, this is the first injury of this nature that we are aware of. Unfortunately, accidents sometimes happen. That’s why we recommend that dogs always be supervised when they are playing with any toy. We take great care in developing safe products for pets and their owners.

At this point we have identified the problem and are not shipping any more Pimple Balls. We have contacted customers that carry this product and have asked them to immediately return their inventory.

Thank you for your concern and feedback. Please know that we are in direct communication with the pet owner whose dog was injured. At Four Paws, happy pets and satisfied pet owners are our number one priority. Rest assured we will continue to work hard to deliver on our priority.

Sincerely,

Allen Simon

President, CEO

Four Paws Products

Sent by Haley Birk on behalf of Allen Simon

Paul reached into a clearance bin at Kmart and cut himself on a rotary blade. Blood everywhere, fingertips flying like chunky confetti, you can imagine the scene (oh wait, we just did for you). He went to the customer service desk to ask for help and was greeted with an annoyed store manager who was concerned about two things only: whether or not there was any "contaminated area" to clean up, and getting Paul to fill out some paperwork for insurance purposes. What she wasn't concerned about was helping Paul in any way, even after he explicitly asked for help, as the following exchange makes clear.

Mgr: What happened?

Me: I cut myself on a blade in your clearance aisle that was loose in a bin. This one. Do you have a first aid kit?

Mgr: That stuff is in the pharmacy, and it's closed right now. Did you bleed anywhere?

Me: Uh...maybe? probably?

Mgr: ::calls someone on a walkie or something who then comes up and they spend like 5 minutes trying to figure out where their bloodborne pathogen cleanup kit is::

Me: So. Can I have something? You don't have anything at all?

Mgr: We don't have any way of getting into the pharmacy.

Paul excused himself to clean up in their public bathroom, which we pray to all the gods is more sanitary than the one at the Kmart at Astor Place in NYC. When he came back, the manager made him write down a statement on the back of an unrelated sheet of paper because she couldn't find the right form. At this point, an employee brought him bandages and Neosporin. But shouldn't every store have a basic first aid kit of some sort?

Highlights were

• the woman saying "oh no, don't put that there, we don't want to contaminate more stuff" when I was handling the things I was buying. Which I still bought.
• Not getting a copy of the paperwork I signed, which I realized in hindsight.
• Having them be so blatantly concerned about their procedures and completely, totally not about me.

So yeah. I was pissed, I mean. Things happen. They didn't put the cutter there, most likely it was some minimum wage, dissatisfied person doing reshopping and wanting to get home and just chucking it into the clearance box, or some trashy customer taking it out of the package for some inane reason. But at least give a glimmer of "whoops, sorry about that, our bad". C'mon.

"Man, K-Mart blows." [Vartan] (Thanks to Ben!)

Dr. Susan M. Trocciola, who was a resident in trauma medicine at the time, testified that she placed a finger in Mr. Persaud's rectal area after conducting a physical exam of his spine to check for a spinal-cord injury.
 
Whether the rectal exam was performed was a matter of dispute. Mr. Persaud testified that he felt a finger inserted in his rectum, but Dr. Trocciola said the exam was never carried out.

Mr. Persaud was not necessarily the most sympathetic plaintiff. It emerged during the trial that Mr. Persaud, a native of Guyana who did not complete high school, had been convicted of two misdemeanors: attempted aggravated harassment for making phone calls to an ex-girlfriend's mother in 2001 and criminal mischief for threatening a fellow motorist with a baseball bat after a minor car accident in 2007. Mr. Persaud had filed a workers' compensation claim and also sued the owner of the site where he was injured. He was awarded about $4,000 in the compensation claim, but the suit was settled for a negligible sum, Mr. Marrone said.
 
In a phone interview, Mr. Marrone said of his client, "He's not a perfect person, but he's not a criminal by any standard of the word. He's got a lot of anxiety. He reacts negatively in stressful situations and he has a short temper."

RELATED
"Doctor Forces Rectal Exam, Patient Punches Doctor, Police Arrest Patient, Patient Sues"
(Photo: Getty)

Now a family from Westchester has filed a lawsuit that claims that their child was "severely and permanently" injured in November 2007, when her Croc got caught in a escalator at JFK airport.

From the NY Daily News:

"The skin was peeled off her toe," lawyer Andrew Laskin said. "It's a pretty horrifying injury. And it's also horrible for a parent to witness your child injured in this way and suffering."

"Crocs shoes are completely safe. The popularity of our shoes has helped draw attention to a long-existing issue that we think is very important—escalator safety"

"Escalator safety is an issue we take very seriously, and we are looking into this report."

Suit: Crocs shoe led to 3-year-old girl's toe accident on JFK escalator [Daily News]
Can Crocs Be Dangerous To Your Child? [City News]

"Under the Consumer Product Safety Act," writes the CPSC, "Manufacturers, distributors and retailers are required to immediately report to CPSC information about products that could create a substantial risk of injury to the public or that create an unreasonable risk of serious injury or death."

"Shopping Channel HSN Agrees to Pay $875,000 Civil Penalty" [CPSC]

Consumer Reports analyzed the full CPSC report:

• Non-motorized scooters: Three deaths occurred when children either hit or were hit by an automobile. The children ranged in age from six to 13 years.
• Toy nails and pegs: Three children died when they choked on or aspirated plastic nails or pegs. One 19-month-old boy died after choking on an oversized plastic nail from a toy workbench. A second boy, 2, died when he fell while running with a toy nail; the nail got wedged in the back of his throat. Another two-year-old suddenly started coughing and stopped breathing. He died at the hospital where an autopsy showed a plastic peg from a toy had become lodged in his left bronchus.
• Rubber balls: Three children died when they either aspirated or choked on small rubber balls. Two of the children who choked on small rubber balls were about one year old while the third child was an autistic eight-year-old who aspirated a rubber ball.
• Powered riding toys: There were three fatalities. A boy, 3, was riding a battery-powered toy four-wheeler unsupervised and fell into a pond. A girl, 2, was riding her battery-powered toy truck as her family walked along on a sidewalk; a speeding car hit and killed her. A 6-year-old died when the cape of his costume became entangled in the axle of the gasoline-powered ATV he was riding and strangled him.
• Tricycles: There were two fatalities. In separate incidents, a three-year-old female and a three-year-old male fell into the family in-ground swimming pool while riding a tricycle and drowned.
• Stuffed toys: There were two deaths associated with stuffed toys . A six-month-old fell off the parents' bed into a pile of stuffed animals and suffocated A three-month-old fell off a bed into a container of stuffed toys and suffocated.
• Other balls: There were two deaths from unspecified types of balls. One struck a girl, 10, while she was playing at school; she died of inter-cerebral hemorrhage. A 17-month-old was run over when he followed the ball with which he was playing as it rolled behind a truck.
• Balloons: A nine-month-old female died of upper airway obstruction caused by an uninflated balloon.
• Rubber darts: A 10-year-old boy died from aspirating a rubber dart. He had been chewing on a toy gun dart when he had trouble breathing and collapsed. At the ER, he was found to have a rubber dart in his right lung.
• Toy organizer: A nine-month-old, found underneath a wooden toy organizer, died of neck compression.
• Unspecified: A seven-year-old boy was chewing on a plastic toy when a small part of the toy broke off and became lodged in his throat. He died of asphyxia.

The CPSC cautions that toys were associated with these incidents, but not necessarily their cause.

Toy-Related Deaths and Injuries, Calendar Year 2006 (pdf) [CPSC]
CPSC: 22 children died in toy-related deaths in 2006 [Consumer Reports]
(Photo: Getty)

Yeah, we don't want that to happen either. That's why you should stop using the recalled bicycles immediately and contact Huffy for instructions on tightening the crank.

This recall affects:

2007 model year, multi-speed bicycles with 26-inch, 24-inch or 20-inch wheels. The "Howler" was sold in black (model K3587, boy's model), blue (model K4587, men's model), and red (model K6587, men's model). The "Highland" was sold in white (model K4597, women's model) and blue (model K6597, women's model). The name "Howler" or "Highland" is printed on the frame of the bicycle, and the name "Huffy" is on the front of the frame. Model numbers are located on a label on the bottom of the frame where the crank is attached to the bicycle.

Contact Huffy Corp.(888) 366-3828 between 8 a.m. and 4:30 p.m. ET Monday through Friday, or visit www.huffybikes.com

Huffy Recalls Bicycles Due To Cranks Falling Off; Riders Can Lose Control of Bike [CPSC]

The reason so many toys were recalled this summer is not that there weren't enough regulations. It's that toy makers were ignoring the regulations that are already on the books. And the new testing proposal won't stop them from continuing to do so.

Not surprisingly, the toy industry's recent calls for third-party testing are focused entirely on lead, which is a good sign that they're more about pre-Christmas damage control than safety. A lobbyist for the Toy Industry Association told Slate that third-party testers would start with lead and the move on to things like "small parts," but did not mention design flaws.

There's also speculation that the larger toy companies are using this as an opportunity to drive up production costs just enough to get rid of small, "made in America" toy companies.

Felcher supports with the idea that the CPSC should be given more power to levy much larger fines against offending companies, but cautions that unless a "consumer-friendly" chairman is appointed, things could continue as they are. (Only at least we won't have to worry about lead, right?)

Played Out: What it would really take to make toys safer" [Slate]
(Photo: Getty)

According to a discussion going on over at Wise Bread, more and than a few children have been seriously injured when their Crocs or other rubber clogs stuck to a moving elevator. A few children have actually had toes ripped off by the escalator.

That this was even possible would not have occurred to us, so we thought we'd pass the information along to those of you who have kids. It's probably not a good idea to allow your children to wear these shoes on escalators. The parent of a recently injured child wrote to Wise Bread:

There is no point in raising arguments along the lines of escalators being inherently dangerous for children, or of the possibility of similar accidents with every other kind of footwear, or of parents being solely responsible for the safety of their children when under their care. The fact is that so many children have been hurt because the traction of their clogs is unsuitable for escalators. This danger had come to our attention prior to the accident involving my very own daughter, which is why we are always very careful when making her ride the escalator with her Crocs on. She even constantly recites the line "stay on the center," as we always remind her to do so. But it just took a millisecond for us to fall victim to an already familiar mishap. Being careful just wasn't enough.

Wise Bread also linked this news video about the issue. It offers Croc's official response:

"Crocs shoes are completely safe. The popularity of our shoes has helped draw attention to a long-existing issue that we think is very important—escalator safety"

More children hurt in Crocs-related accidents. [Wise Bread]

"I failed to remember my civil service admonitions that, just like the North Koreans, cat litter lives in a perpetual state of readiness. As a result, one of my digits sprang forth with a fountain of hemoglobin. I found the closest who personally walked me over to the manager that not only provided a Band Aid , but a cleansing solution as well."

Of course, if you start bleeding at Walmart, no one will be able to distinguish it from the lashing stains left behind by the undocumented immigrant workers.

Still, it's a company, and sometimes, companies just ask inexplicably weird. Ask Jennifer, who got just a nasty paper cut in Target. She started spurting gore all over the place. Yet when she asked some concerned Target employees, idling helpfully next to the Band-Aid section, if she could have a Band-Aid, they looked puzzled. "Band... Aid?" they asked, pronouncing each syllable with confusion, like cavemen trying to comprehend the Einstein-Rosenberg principle. And then they directed her to go bleed all over the customer service desk.

As Jennifer sums up, "I guess the moral of the story is to bring your own first aid for retail hazards." Talk about how awesome Target is, and read Jennifer's story, after the jump.

I feel like a bit of a traitor coming out with this, because I buy most of my household sundries from Target, but what they did to me Friday was so obnoxious...

I went to the Fremont, Ca, "Hub" store Friday afternoon to pick up some treats for Halloween goodie bags. I had no cart, because I had come in the back door of the store, which doesn't have any free carts (they use one of those radio-cart systems that helpfully locks the wheels to keep you from taking a cart more than four feet from the door, so the carts are all hobbled on that side). No matter, I only need some bat shaped erasers.

After I grabbed those, I passed the food section and picked up a couple twelve packs of soda. While I was heading back to the back register carrying these, one of the boxes shifted, and the edge of the cardboard sliced into my finger, and I end up bleeding all over the boxes- but no problem, because here are two associates walking my way. I wave them over, show them my bloody finger, and ask if they have any bandaids (ironically, we're right in front of the aisle with the first aid supplies.) They look at each other, look at me with my bleeding finger and my soda, and helpfully suggest I return to the front of the store and ask customer service for a bandaid- and when she catches sight of my expression, she suddenly notices I'm carrying these boxes- and so she offers to go and get me a cart. Seriously. Then they walk away without a second look, and I realize it's a shorter trip to the first aid kit in my car than it is to customer service. So I guess the moral of the story is- bring your own first aid for retail hazards...

The Consumer Product Safety Commission has taken your tax dollars and used them to create a weird '70s looking website on ATV safety. Why? Because people are killing themselves. There were 136,100 emergency room visits casued by ATVs in 2004 alone. Now, internet assholes or no, we don't want people killing themselves on ATVs, but we do have to laugh at the website's slogan:

"Before you hit the trails, take knowledge to the extreme"

Are they trying to make people think ATV safety is lame? Extreme is so over...even the backlash against extreme is over. If Tickle Me Elmo is "Extreme" nothing is.

The toy features a red plastic pick-up/dump truck with four 7-inch black plastic wheels that are packed with a box of 40 LEGO DUPLO bricks in the cargo area. The box of DUPLO bricks is not included in the recall, and hey, that's like money in the bank.

The truck was sold at various retailers nationwide, including Toys "R" Us and Wal-Mart through August 2004, which means that the damn thing is AT LEAST 2 years old. Your kid, if he or she survived, has totally outgrown this toy and it's time to cash in and buy an X-treme Tickle Me Elmo.
Don't bet on getting your money back for that one in two years, though. So far, there's never been a product recall for "severe mental anguish caused by repetition of screetching muppet voice, leading to madness, even death."

Childhood trauma aside, Safety Bingo plays a far more dangerous game, find out why after the jump...

According to several trade unions and safety journals, their business model is manufacturing games that purport to teach workplace safety while actually discouraging reporting workplace injuries.

From the Confined Spaces blog:

"In a Massachusetts workplace last year, a worker was caught in an unguarded machine and crushed to death. Minor injuries that had occurred on that machine weren't being reported because the plant utilized both a safety bingo game that rewarded workers for not reporting injuries and a post-injury drug testing policy that mandated drug testing for all workers who reported injuries. If those minor injuries had been reported, the lack of machine guarding could have been identified and corrected. Instead, the hazard was never identified, and a fatality resulted."

And consider this quote from BillSims.com, sellers of one such a safety bingo game, "You've painted all the yellow lines and bought all the safety equipment. But Injuries still happen. According to Dupont, 98% of these occur due to employee failure to follow established safety rules."

Blaming injuries in the workplace on employee ignorance is wrong. It's the employer's responsibility to ensure a safe workplace, not to incentives under-reporting of accidents.

If you hear about a company that uses this program or one similar, that may be a company to boycott.