Minor Child is Severely Burned by Defective Water Heater in Lake Worth, Florida
Statistics show that burns rank second as the leading cause of death in children, age 0 to 5. Children are the major concerns for scald or hot water burns due to the fact that children have not fully developed the thickness of their skin. Therefore, they burn faster than adults. According to these same statistics, an average of 300 burn cases per year is reported for children due to high temperature water. Half of the incidents reported of scald burns are due to the unattended hot water used on children.
The victim in this Florida premises liability case was only two years old at the time of this incident. Her mother was working and she was being cared for by her father. At her age, she was still undergoing toilet training, so when she told her father she needed to go to the bathroom, she was unable to wait and made a mess. In order to clean the child and the bathroom, her father removed her clothes and placed her in the shower, after adjusting the temperature to lukewarm. The father reported that the child was gently crying in the shower as he cleaned the bathroom and went out back to throw away the remains of the mess. While he was out back, he heard the little girl make a loud scream. He ran into the bathroom where he found her in a steamy bathroom running in place under the water. He immediately called 911, and rescue personnel airlifted the child first to Delray Community Hospital and later to Jackson Memorial Hospital Burn Unit.
The child remained at the Burn Unit at Jackson Memorial Hospital for several months. She had severe burns over 1/3 of her body surface and needed numerous procedures for the debridement of her burns. Eventually she underwent surgery at the Shriners Burn Center in Ohio. After surgery and weeks of healing, she was fitted with a special mask and suit to wear to hopefully prevent the development of keloid scars from the burns.
The parents of this child contacted Attorney Richard D. Schuler for assistance in this matter. Mr. Schuler conducted an extensive investigation into the cause of this horrific incident and brought suit against not only the owner of the apartment complex, but also the manufacturer of the water heater and the contractor who performed the renovations to the apartment complex and installed the water heater. Several experts were retained regarding the code violations on the property, the inherently dangerous propensities and inadequate size of the particular water heater, and inadequate safety measures taken by the landlord to prevent any tampering with the water heater, among others.
Mr. Schuler was successful in settling with all defendants, without the necessity of a trial, for more than $2 million dollars, which will go a long way toward helping this child on her road to recovery from these devastating injuries.
