Woman Sues Dunkin Donuts After Son Dies In Bathroom

NBC Chicago:

Simon Chruszcz stepped into the restroom at a Northwest Side Dunkin' Donuts on a summer evening in 2007. When he didn't come out for an extended period, a concerned customer urged the employees at the shop to call for help, but they refused.

Read the whole story: NBC Chicago

Comments

[bossone]

Read, the door was locked from the inside. The mom was JUST standng there! Why didn't see call 911? Something in the milk ain't clean.

[amdezurik]

that is not in the story as given. In the actual article a "customer" was concerned and asked them to call 911, NOT the mother.

[beherenow54]

There was no mention, in this article, of the mother being present at this donut shop, only a "customer" who called 911.

[mphalen]

Nobody had a cell phone?

[amdezurik]

911 on cell phones take longer and since there was a land line there it should have been called in from that.

[mckinley]

1) The mother is charging that Dunkin Donuts KNEW her son was lying unresponsive on the restroom floor, when the police had to bust down the door locked from inside.

2) Most staffers at such places are teenagers -- and they are told to do NOTHING that is not written in the regs or that they are told to do explicitely by their managers, even when it is totally common sense.

3) BECAUSE of lawsuits, companies tell their employees not to get involved, not to offer use of phones or help out of the ordinary. -- And for all the staff knew, it could have been a set-up to distract them for a robbery.

[amdezurik]

they did not need to "offer the use of a phone", simply for them to pick it up and call 911. does not seem so hard to me. And in fact probably musch esier then a cell being used and taking longer for them to respond since the address would need to be spelled out as opposed to simply appearing on the operators screen. Calling 911 is the FIRST option for them in a case where (at the very least) someone was blocking their restroom. Are they accoustomed to having over-night guests in that restroom?

[Nicon]

would you call 911 because someone left the crapper door locked?

[beherenow54]

Although it's been awhile since I worked in a restaurant, I was never given the type of instructions you mention. I've never heard of companies telling their employees not to get involved if a patron has something wrong with him, particularly when another customer asks them to check/call for help. Lack of attention could lead to exactly what happened, a lawsuit.

[llisa]

There was a lack of good judgment on the part of the employees in this incident.

Whoever was running the store that day, they probably were following protocol to the letter.

Probably there will now be employee training sessions in stores on what to do if someone doesn't come out of the bathroom in a timely manner.

It is sad that employers can no longer rely on common sense and have to spell out every single eventuality to employees because they feel they cannot think for themselves.

It is sad that employees who CAN think for themselves are afraid to because they may be fired if they do not follow company rules.

[VOTER]

It is unforgivable that the employees of this shop refused to
check on a patron's well being.

Unless something is missing from this story, they deserve to be sued.

[bmermaid]

Everyone is going to die eventually. Bringing law suits will never stop that.
That said, the employees seem to lack human decency. But lawsuits won't change that either.

[beherenow54]

Although I'm no fan of frivolous lawsuits, in this case a lawsuit might be just the thing to change their tactics in their restaurant. The "everyone is going to die eventually" reasoning you give doesn't give justification, at all, to allowing someone to die because they refuse to help. Again, a lawsuit might be just what's needed to change the apathetic attitude of restaurants and their employees.