My son and my husband went to ride a roller coaster together while I sat down with the rest of my family to have a snack. Upon getting my snack (french fries) I noticed that gnats were fried on top of them and I got back up to get some fresh ones. When I sat back down onto the picnic table a nice size splinter of wood went into my finger. It was hurting tremendously and my daughter suggested we head to the first aid station. A female (Charlotte Gonzalez, park manager and owner's daughter) was driving a trolley and she stopped to pick us up and carry us to the first aid station. Upon arriving at the first aid station the first thing we noticed was the uncleanliness of the room. Inside the room there was a bed with dirty sheets, medical items which were stored improperly, and an unclean floor. I suddenly was hesitant to take the first aid assistance. We were told by Charlotte to wait for the first aid medic to assist us.
After waiting for 15 minutes for the medic to arrive, Charlotte entered back into the room. She put on a pair or eyeglasses and looked at my hand. She then stated that she would attempt to treat me herself. She goes into a large cabinet and pulls out rubbing alcohol, a piece of gauze, a medicine cup and a razor blade. She then goes into a smaller file size cabinet and pulls out a cloth pouch which contained three pairs of metal tweezers. I believe these tweezers were not the ones which were sterile (clean) and they were in this case because they needed to be cleaned. The reason that I believe this is that in the large cabinet where other medical supplies were kept there were new tweezers. Charlotte handed my daughter (8 years old at the time) a medicine cup filled with rubbing alcohol. I was told by Charlotte to go to the bathroom and wash my hands. Charlotte went off into another area of the first aid station.
Upon coming back from washing my hands I had a seat and waited for Charlotte. Charlotte entered the room with a pair of tweezers and quickly handed them to my daughter. At the time my daughter had a strange look on her face and I asked her what was the matter, but she was afraid to speak up. I then felt uncomfortable and asked Charlotte are those tweezers and everything here sterile. Charlotte became rude and agitated and stated in a stern voice: “yes, they have been soaked in alcohol”. Charlotte started to cut into my finger to slice down to the end of the splinter. My finger began bleeding slightly and I was in more pain than before. She wiped off the blood that was oozing. She then applied the tweezers into my hand to lift out the splinter, little by little. I suddenly looked down at the tweezers, and to my dismay the inside of the tweezers were filthy with dried and encrusted blood (deep purple). I was astonished and my husband entered into the room. He also saw the blood and we confronted Charlotte that she must have walked into the back room and grabbed a dirty pair of tweezers on purpose to use on me. She then became aggravated and started filling out a yellow sheet of paper which was an accident report form. I signed it as instructed, but was not given a copy of it to keep. She told me that she would turn in the accident report and if anything came up to let her know. She also stated that she would follow up with me, but she never did that either.
Upon returning to my hometown, I immediately contacted my local health department (that following Monday) to find out which blood tests I needed to have performed to rule out infectious diseases from this dirty utensil being used on me. My obstetrician performed an HIV and Hepatitis screening on me as an err of caution. I also followed up with my primary care physician for further testing and again at later dates as suggested (for follow-up testing). For about two weeks I had trouble with this splinter and I kept applying antibiotic ointments and bandages to it. To date I still have a small scar and a small bubble like fluid filled lump in that area (it comes and goes similar to a wart). All of my medical providers were appalled by the negligence of this park and confused why their insurance provider never contacted them to pay for the medical bills. They stated that it was their responsibility since this event could have been easily prevented with the proper sanitary conditions. Medical instruments should be stowed safely and cleaned properly at regular intervals. I contacted a lawyer because the medical bills for the testing needed to be taken care of by the management. My insurance was not covering all of the bills. I contacted Dallas Jones again and he called me back on three-way with Charlotte Gonzalez.
During the call they admitted and acknowledged the incident, but did not want to compensate me for my trouble nor reimburse me for my medical bills. Dallas had spoken down to me and in the most rudest manner and he was very unhelpful and disrespectful during the entire call. Although he was not present during my incident he opted to side with Charlotte Gonzalez and refused to offer me any kind of apology or assistance. Charlotte even referred to me as "a crazy woman" and both of them were rude to my husband as well. My husband and child had overheard the full conversation. Dallas ended the call and hung up while I was still talking and as he was hanging up, he called me a racially and religiously discriminating name. Dallas had stated prior to hanging up that he would only contact me via a lawyer and that he would work it out with them. However, after my lawyer sent numerous letters him and his daughter still refused to follow up (and only reached out to the lawyers on one occasion).
Charlotte told my lawyer's assistance “sometimes we can settle cases like this without getting our legal people involved”. Meaning that they did not want to report this case to their insurance company to file a claim, but instead wanted to settle it in private. The normal protocol is to submit a claim with their accidental insurance and then I would be reimbursed for my medical bills. I had all of the information together for the medical payments and had contacted my own insurance company as directed. However, the company (Beech Bend) never followed up with my lawyers. I also sent over five personal letters (even some mediated by my husband) to Beech Bend and they were all signed for through certified mail by Charlotte and/or Dallas; however, both of them never responded to a single letter. My lawyer stated that they were just wasting time and trying to pretend they would respond, but they had no intentions on ever following through with the promises. We also believe that my case was never reported to their accidental insurance company. If this is the case the report that she took in front of me my family and I was hidden or destroyed.
This is a fine example of bad business practices. Any reputable company would never hide an accident from an insurance company nor neglect a consumer who had an issue. My complaint is valid and the management was at fault for this incident. If my complaint had been invalid I would never have been directed to a lawyer nor would my lawyer had been told that things would be settled without involving their own legal people. It remains obvious that the management did not want anyone to know about this incident. However, they felt I was too small to have any voice or for anyone to listen to me. Later, a friend reached out to them on facebook and stated that it was wrong what they have done to me. The friend was ridiculed about their religious beliefs which only Charlotte and Dallas would be aware of by knowing my religious affiliation. My religious affiliation should not play any role in them treating me fairly as a consumer. There were prejudiced remarks made due to my friend being Muslim and then they were deleted off of facebook. The comments were made by someone from management. I feel that my case was hidden from their insurance company.
Also, I feel that I have been discriminated against due to my religion and my skin color. I am very upset because Charlotte is at fault for the mental distress and heavy heart I have carried with me for the past two years. Another friend of mine reached out to them on my behalf and received hateful comments from family members and friends of the business owners. The only thing my friends wanted to do was to get a response on my behalf because she was tired of me being upset for so long over this event. However, when I was hopeful at being reimbursed for my medical bills and upsetting event I was told by their family members that I was playing the race card. This never had been an attempt to play the race card, this was simply an attempt to be treated as a human being and valued customer. Sadly, there are many bad reviews for this park on facebook and other websites. Sadly, after reaching out to CAIR, the news channel and newspapers nobody would hear my story. Therefore, I decided to post it to this blog in order to be my own voice.
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