My Wife was injured at the DVC Annual Meeting: Updated Post #51

DVC Mike

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Our vacation at WDW took a turn for the worse at the DVC Annual Meeting on Tuesday, Dec 4, 2007 at the Coronado Springs Resort. The meeting started at 2pm, and my wife got up to use the restroom at 2:45 pm. About 20 minutes later, I have a DVC staff member tapping on my shoulder. She tells me my wife has been injured and escorts me out of the meeting.

As I am taken outside the meeting room, I see my wife surrounded my DVC staff as well as various Coronado Springs security personnel. Apparently, one of the sinks in the woman’s restroom had a leak, and water had pooled under the sink and also ran across the bathroom floor (about 3” wide and 6 ft long).

My wife didn’t notice the water on the floor and subsequently slipped and fell. After she managed to get up, she limped out of the bathroom and notified the DVC staff outside the meeting room, who then called Security and then pulled me out of the meeting.

Since my wife experienced severe pain in her hip when she tried to sit down or raise her leg, paramedics were called who examined her and recommended she be taken to the hospital. She was laid out on a gurney to the paramedic’s ambulance and taken to the hospital in Celebration.

I ran to the front desk, asked for the manager and informed him what had taken place. I told him what resort we were staying at (Animal Kingdom Villas) and gave him our room number and my cell phone. I then drove to the hospital.

Eventually, after four hours at the hospital, an X-Ray, a shot, and a lot of prescriptions, my wife was discharged with crutches. Happily, nothing was broken but she was in severe pain due to something being torn or pulled.

We arrived at our resort and discovered that neither Coronado Springs nor DVC had notified AKL what had taken place. We hobbled down to dinner at Boma. My wife felt worse, and eventually had a bad reaction to the dosage of pain medication that the hospital had given her. She was too weak to walk and we asked for a wheelchair.

We talked to the restaurant manager at Boma and explained our displeasure with CSR and DVC not only not informing AKL of the incident, but that no one at CSR, DVC, or anyone else had Disney had followed up with us to see how my wife was doing.

After several phone calls the next morning to DVC Member Services and AKL resort management, the Disney hospitality engine finally seemed to kick into gear and respond to the fact that our vacation was not going to be as magical as we expected. We were going to spend every day left of our vacation in the hotel room with my wife lying in bed.

Later that day, DVC did send us a complementary fruit/cheese basket. Boma gave us a free dinner for the two of us. Housekeeping gave us 5 small stuffed Disney characters and offered a free full cleaning at the 4-day mark. Best of all, the GM of AKL called us and let us know they were giving us a free private tour of the AKL savannah. I was worried that it would be too bumpy for my wife to be able to enjoy, but it wasn’t too bumpy, and her pain medication allowed her to handle it.

The tour was great. The two of us rode in a van with the hotel manager and the animal curator at AKL. We spent an hour just driving around the 3 savannahs getting very close to the animals.

Our trip up to the point of the incident was fabulous! We spent a great night at MVMCP, seeing both the regular Wishes as well as the holiday version, and saw the ice on Cinderella’s castle. We spent a great night at Epcot eating at Le Cellier and watching the holiday version of Illuminations. We also saw the Osborne Lights at Disney Studios.

We had to cut our vacation short and head home. All in all, we felt that AKL picked up the slack after Disney initially dropped the ball. We never got a call from DVC, and Coronado Springs finally called us two days after the incident to say “they were thinking of us”. Whatever. I really appreciated the hospitality of all the great folks at Disney’s Animal Kingdom Lodge.
 
Here are some of the pictures we took on the AKL savannah tour:

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How is your wife doing now? Sorry she had such a tough time and you had to cut your trip short. Hope she is feeling better! Thanks for the wonderful pictures.:)
 
Yikes! I am so glad she is okay. A few years ago I fell down some stairs that ice was dropped on and broke my tailbone. We were on a cruise ship and the customer service sucked - they would not even give me an asprin.

I am glad Disney finally stepped up...great pictures as well
 

I'm really sorry to hear of your wife's mishap and I am glad to hear she will be okay. pixiedust:
 
Sorry to hear that your wife was injured...glad AKV picked up the ball for you! In our experience, Disney is usually pretty good about taking care of guests who have problems of some sort - I think it's very weird that they were at all neglectful! Hope your wife is doing better by now...
 
Sorry to hear about your wife's fall. Hoping she is doing better, and thankfully it was not worse, like a break.
CSR/DVC should have extended a bit more concern/courtesy...or they gave it to AKV to handle.
I would write a letter to DVC complimenting AKV....then "nicely" add your disappointment in CSR and DVC's lack of concern.

Just my thoughts.....take care
 
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I hope your wife if feeling better. I'm glad that AKL acknowledged you deserved some attention.

We just returned from 2 weeks at OKW. One afternoon when we returned to our room, there was a cast member outside who had apparently just finished powerwashing the sideing of the building we were in. He taped the key slide area of the doors and around the fire alarms. We removed the tape and used our key to open the door. My DH was the first to walk into the room and the next thing you know he was on the floor. There was a big puddle in the middle of the entryway floor.

The door did not have a tight seal when closed and apparently the water came right through the opening.

My husband has a heart condition, a herniated disk in his neck and several other health issues. Needless to say he was quite upset. He called the front desk and let them know what happened. He wanted a call from the manager. Never did get a call from the manager, only a "representative calling on his behalf". I won't go into all the details about that conversation but we never did hear anything else.

My DH managed to rest for awhile and fall asleep. He didn't want to go to the Emergency Room. There didn't seem to be any serious injury, so he decided to let it go.
 
I'm sorry to hear about your wife's injury. I hope she feels better soon. Your photos are fantastic! What a nice thing for the staff at AKL/AKV to do for the two of you!
 
Sorry about your wife's injury. I have to say that the CMs at CSR are not the best--we stayed there and at Pop Century a few months ago and found that the Pop CMs were much more friendly and welcoming. The CSR ones didn't have that Disney friendliness, they seemed colder and much more businesslike.
 
So sorry about your wife:grouphug:
what a crummy thing to happen on vacation.....Glad AKL gave you
some disney magic:goodvibes

How is your wife now? I hope she feels better.....
because you left early...did they give you any points back?
Kerri
 
Great pics of the giraffes!

Hope your wife has a speedy and complete recovery. I'm a little surprised that the CSR mgmt did not do more for you and your wife considering that she got hurt on CSR property.
 
Thanks for the kind thoughts! DVC initially said our points would go into a holding account, but I said I had a March Use Year and I wouldn't get the chance to use them, so they said I could bank them. I thought that was nice.

The hospitality of the Animal Kingdom Lodge resort was great! We are going back there in March. We really loved AKV and can't wait.
 
That is terrible- here's to a speedy recovery. :goodvibes The tour looked great!
 
Mike, I hate to hear about your wife's fall and that it caused your vacation to be cut short:sad2: It is wonderful to hear how AKV treated you all--glad you BOTH got to enjoy the private savannah tour. I'm glad DVC banked your points for you to. Hopefully your wife is feeling better and you all will be able to fully enjoy the holiday season.:goodvibes
 
My daughter emailed Disney about a fall she experienced at PI the first week of November. As she said if she had been drinking heavily she wouldn't be as upset but had only had a couple of drinks all evening. Apparently it was just about closing time and she and her SO had each gone to the rest room. When she didn't see him as she came out she went back into the club. She had on sneakers which made it even more unlikely that she should fall but apparently there was a wet area near the dance floor she did not notice and ended up falling hitting the back of her head hard enough that it was bleeding. A girl working there gave her a towel to soak up the blood and the male CM told her she had to leave as they were closing. She said the back of her clothes were soaked with beer and alcohol from the floor. She spent the next day in the room due to being dizzy and sick instead of at the golf tournament that day. She called me and we went over all the symptoms of a concussion and what she should do or not do. She felt somewhat better the following day and they were able to continue on with the trip although not all the things they had planned. She is still having some headache & dizziness issues and finally went to a doctor and they ordered an MRI which thankfully is okay. She emailed Disney to ask if the incident was reported (not) because she didn't want someone else to have the same thing happen with the same type of response from CMs. They replied and thanked her for her concern and are sending 2 one day park passes since they looked up her reservation and saw that there were two on the reservation and they must have lost a park day due to the injury. They also provided a number to call if there were medical bills that need to be covered. It was also said they would advise CMs about handling situations like this in a better fashion which is really why she notified them. She was happy with the response and didn't feel it was up to the resort to deal with the problem or the injury as it didn't happen on their premises. She was suprised that they even offered a number to call if she had medical bills as she did not expect them to pay for them.

There is really no reason AKV should have been notified or expected to deal with an injury that did not happen on their premises. It was also not DVCs fault - the water on the floor of the restroom was not a result of the DVC meeting - it was clearly CSR's responsibility.
I think AKV certainly went above and beyond as the responsibility was really that of the resort where the injury happened CSR- not DVC or AKV. Hope your wife is doing better and that your next trip is less eventful and more pleasurable.
 
I hope your wife is doing better and that her pain is gone. I also think other parties should have had some better responses but AKV stepped up. I assume Disney is covering all medical bills?? I hope??
 
I am so sorry to hear this happened to your wife and I hope she is feeling much better now. It doesn't surprise me that AKL was so supportive. We stayed there before becoming DVC members and they were all so wonderful and made our family feel like we were more than just a few people in a crowd of thousands. DVC letting you bank your points was a terrific gesture as well. I hope your next trip to the world is beyond magical. Your wife is in my prayers for a safe and speedy recovery.
 
Sorry to hear of your wife's injury and best wishes for a speedy and full recovery.

I'm sure the doctors told you, but she should receive follow-up care at home. Follow up is very important, because some traumatic injuries are asymptomatic until days, weeks, sometimes months later.

If the medics on the scene applied spinal motion restriction (cervical collar, backboard, etc.) it's important to let the followup doctor at home know that. That packaging is pretty standard for this type of injury and it tells you that the medics were at least aware of the possibility of spinal injury...which is one of those things that often doesn't manifest itself immediately.

I agree Disney should pay her medical bills, including the follow-up care at home. I'm sure there is some contact point (a Risk Management office?) at WDW, and I would expect them to be very responsive. With the number of visitors they have, I'm sure they have well-established procedures for taking care of injured guests.

The EMS transport and emergency room bills alone will be several thousand dollars, and there is no reason why your insurance should pay those in a situation where Disney was clearly negligent. That's especially important if your insurance has large copays or deductibles, or lifetime coverage maximums. They should also pay any out-of-pocket expenses you incurred.

I'm glad DVC stepped up and did everything they could for you, and I hope your wife is feeling much better.
 
I am very sorry to hear about your wife's injury and I hope that she has a speedy and full recovery.

If I were Disney, I'd be paying the hospital/doctor bills, and making sure that any follow up appointments were paid for. At the minimum. I hope that we read that they took that step.
 















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