Local Man Seriously Injured At Mall of Georgia Chili’s - Restaurant Refuses To Help

For over two months, Chili's Mall of Georgia restaurant has reportedly refused to help Mr. Martin in any way regarding the serious injury they allegedly caused him.  He is presently in an enormous amount of pain and having great difficulty supporting his family.

GDO Report

 “One second I was preparing to take a bite of my dinner and the next, I was gazing up the bottoms of other customer’s shoes,” he stated.

A medical device implanted in Mr. Martin’s hip from a 2002 automobile accident was first to hit the floor and crushed upon impact.  “The pain was so severe that it felt like lightning ran through my entire body”, Mr. Martin stated.

Mr. Martin, shaken by this disastrous incident and nauseated by the ensuing pain from the fall was able to slowly collect himself and then hand the different parts of the chair to Chili’s employees.  Unable to eat any more, he and his wife left the restaurant to tend to his injuries as best they could that evening. 

According to witnesses, at the moment just following the victim rising from the floor, the store manager rushed over to assess the situation and filled out what she referred to as "An incident report."  Witnesses stated that the manager seemed very nice and caring and apologized that the chair had fallen apart while he was seated in it.   Witnesses interviewed stated that a single shiny metal screw was on the floor in the vicinity of the incident and several employees began searching but none could find any more screws. 

The particular style of chair that allegedly fell apart in the incident apparently requires four screws to be held together.  At the time, the Chili's staff deduced that the chair that fell apart had been held together with only the one screw and so employees and customers began checking all the other chairs for evidence of poor maintenance.  One witness noticed that after doing the cursory inspection, one customer traded the chair he was seated in for one that was vacant .
 
According to Mr. Martin, the Mall of Georgia Chili’s restaurant refuses to help in any way.  He has contacted them several times, along with their insurance company, Liberty Mutual, and they refuse to help in any way what so ever.

“At one point I was contacted by Jason Shepherd who claimed to be in upper management with Chili's corporate offices in Texas,"  Mr. Martin told us. He stated that Mr. Shepherd opened the conversation stating  that the intention of his phone call was to inform Mr. Martin that he was going to authorize Liberty Mutual to help or "make an offer" in some way.  But Mr. Martin claims that he recently contacted Diana Brailey in Liberty Mutual's Irving Texas office, who is handling his claim, and she informed him that she spoke with Mr. Shepherd and she was given no such instruction. 

Mr. Martin went on to state that Jason Shepherd informed him during their conversation that if he filed a personal injury lawsuit against Chili’s – they may choose to accuse Mr. Martin of having broken his implanted medical device elsewhere, and that he coincidentally sat in a chair at Chili’s that just happened to fall apart.  Mr. Martin also claims that Shepherd informed him that if a personal injury attorney was to be involved - then Mr. Martin would receive even less assistance from Chili's in the long run.  "I initially assumed that they were calling me to ask how I was doing and express their apologies about the serious injury they caused to me," he states.  "They never even sent a get well card!" he adds.

Mr. Martin claims that he has done everything he can think of to persuade Chili’s to help him get his implant replaced before the batteries contained in the unit begin to leak out into his body, but the Buford restaurant has done absolutely nothing to remedy the situation.  In reviewing the owners manual of the medical device, one of the first pages contains the following warning: "Caution: Batteries May Leak."  The unit implanted in Mr. Martin's back contains four batteries. 

During our interview, Mr. Martin produced credit card receipts showing that he and his wife had been frequent customers of the Mall of Georgia Chili’s restaurant since they opened their doors and he claims that he and his wife are on a first name basis with many, if not most if it's employees.

“It’s unbelievable that Chili's would treat a long time regular customer with such blatant disregard when they are so obviously at fault,” says Mr. Martin.  "I sincerely hope people read this story and know how they’ll be treated should they decide to visit their local neighborhood Chili’s restaurant and think twice before they do so," he adds. 

Since the incident, Mr. Martin has been in severe pain most of the time and has missed a great deal of work.  He tells us that he’s falling behind on his mortgage payments and fears the worst.  Mrs. Martin, Paul O. Martin's wife, tells us that they normally keep emergency funds in an account in case something like this happens, but she explains that they depleted those funds over the last year when her husband underwent extensive cancer surgery last summer. 

The medical proceedure he went through typically lands the patient in the hospital's intensive care unit two to three days following the surgery.  The patient is sent home shortly there-after to endure a four to six month intensive recovery period.  Mr. Martin went into a coma following the surgery that lasted about twenty days, during which time he nearly died.  His recovery period  lasted almost a year, and he was only back to full-time work for only a couple of months when the incident happened at Chili's. 

Mr. Martin is the sole bread winner of their household as Mrs. Martin is permanently disabled.  Neither Mr. Martin nor his wife receive Social Security disability or any other form of additional income at this time and are completely frustrated by the manner in which a company in the "hospitality" industry is behaving.

With Mr. Martin's conscent, we interviewed staff members at Georgia Pain Physicians where he had the medical device implanted.  The office is one of five throughout North Georgia owned and operated by Dr. Robert Windsor.  All parties involved have first hand knowledge that Chili's insurance representatives have been sent every possible bit of information they require to move forward with the replacement of the medical device, should they choose to do so.  

Records indicate that Liberty Mutual had been sent documents weeks prior to our interview which contained information concerning the nature of the condition that required implantation of the device, a full description of the device, confirmation that it functioned properly just before the incident in the restaurant and the results of four hours of diagnostic testing the day following the incident concluding that the unit very recently experienced significant trauma yielding it inoperable.

Mr. Martin tells us that the Liberty Mutual representative could not recall if she had been sent the information.  He adds that their representative tends to stray from the truth a great deal when they communicate over the phone.

Dr. Miles Mason III
Dr. Miles Mason III has received many tributes and awards over the past decade, is owner of the Mason Medical Clinic in Duluth and sponsors a free medical clinic for the poor in Lawrenceville.  He has a wing dedicated to his excellence in medicine and financial contributions at Joan Glancy Medical Center.  He holds many titles including the Chairman and Staff President of the entire Gwinnett Health System and named “Citizen of the Year” by the Gwinnett Chamber of Commerce. 

Dr. Robert Windsor
Mr. Martin’s pain physician for his medical implant is Dr. Robert Windsor, who is a world renowned physician for his advancements in the field of surgical treatment for chronic pain and he has been published many times throughout his career (link).  He recently sold some of the interest in his group of pain management and surgical clinics throughout North Georgia to purchase groups of other pain treatment centers in other states (link to article).

Mr. Martin and his wife are currently seeking a second mortgage on their home to finance the operation to repair his injury that occurred at the Mall of Georgia Chili’s restaurant, but his recent decline in income from his cancer surgery and the Chili's incident is hindering their efforts.  Should they be successful in their efforts, they can then go on to complete the treatment for his cancer surgery, provided it’s not too late.

“If anyone who reads this story has any ideas that may help me resolve my medical issues, I’d love to hear them,” he requests.  Suggestions can be emailed to medicalremedies@realnetsolutions.ws.  When asked why he doesn’t simply sue the restaurant for the injury they caused him, Mr. Martin replies that he’s not the type of person that goes around suing people and if he was - a lawsuit would probably take over two years and he just doesn’t have that much time to wait.  In addition, it appears that Chili’s has reportedly expressed a clear indication of what their intentions will be in court.