Jeff's Stuff

On August 18, 2002, my wife, 10-month-old son and I were on our way home from a vacation in Maine. We stopped at a Friendly's restaurant for breakfast. We were shown to our table, a booth with a high chair situated at one end.

We put Ryan in the high chair and sat down at the booth on either side of him. We ordered our breakfast and, the waitress returned shortly thereafter with two plates of pancakes which she placed in front of my wife and I.

Apparently, at some point soon after, the waitress returned and placed a container of syrup in front of our 10-month-old son. She did not tell us that the syrup was hot. She did not in fact tell us anything. She simply put an open container in front of an inquisitive 10-month-old boy. This container was about an inch high and 5 inches in diameter.

You can probably predict what happened next. Ryan reached out and grabbed the container of syrup which toppled over, covering his right hand and right leg with boiling hot syrup!

I yelled very loudly for help. After yelling several times, the waitress returned. I said, "my son's been burned. I need water!"

The waitress returned with a dirty dishrag. I yelled once again, "I need clean water!"

I yelled for someone to call an ambulance. When I yelled a second time, someone replied that an ambulance was on the way.

Meanwhile, the waitress returned once again. This time she brought with her a glass of water. As I was pouring the water on my child's burns, the manager, walked over and said, "you're using too much water and making a mess on the floor."

I have to say at this point that, while I am a passive person, and I have not hit anyone in anger since the fifth grade, I came very close at that moment. If my son didn't need me at that moment in time, I probably would have beaten the man senseless for his lack of sensitivity and total lack of common sense.

I ignored him and continued pouring water over the burns until the police arrived. At that point, my wife took Ryan into the women's room and began running cold water directly from the tap onto his injured leg. Shortly thereafter the ambulance arrived.

We ended up at the emergency room and from there, we were sent to the Shriners burn center in Boston. Ryan had second degree burns on both his leg and his hand. He had to stay overnight at the hospital and was in so much pain that he received at least two shots of morphine.

In the police report, the waitress, said that she "...advised the parents that it (the syrup) was hot..." unfortunately, this is an outright bald-faced lie! The waitress never said anything about the syrup. She put it down silently and walked away. We certainly didn't know it was hot. And while we're on the subject, who serves hot syrup? Warm syrup perhaps, but not hot.

Since that time, no one from Friendly's has ever once called to apologize or to inquire about the child's well-being. Well, except once when they wanted to record a statement from me. I'm sorry, but I'm not a fool. I'm not going to make any recorded statement without my attorney present. Still, the manager never called to apologize. The waitress, never called to apologize.

What was most disturbing to me however was the one call that I did receive several months later. A gentleman named Bob Delvecchio telephoned to tell me an interesting story. Mr. Delvecchio apparently was in charge of that particular Friendly's restaurant. He conveyed to me a couple interesting points that I'm sure Friendly's doesn't want me to know about.

First, he stated that the waitress heated the syrup in a commercial microwave oven, and that the temperature was about 180° not the 85° that it was supposed to be, had she used the "syrup warmer" as was the restaurant's policy.

Mr. Delvecchio also told me that when he explained what happened to his district manager, and told him about the microwave oven being used, the district manager's reply to him was "F--k em, they'll never know!"

Well unfortunately Mr. Delvecchio was laid off and, decided to share this information with me, and ultimately with my attorney. Alas, my attorney informed me that since there were no out-of-pocket expenses (the Shriners Hospital does not charge its patients) and because Ryan didn't suffer any permanent injury, the laws of the State of Massachusetts preclude any type of lawsuit.

Given that I can't sue them, you would think they would at least have the common courtesy to apologize. You would think that the waitress would be fired the same day for doing something so idiotic as placing boiling hot syrup in front of an infant. You would think that the district manager would be fired for his actions (or lack thereof). You would think that the manager would've been fired for his callous treatment of us. You may have thought any or all of these things. But still, none of this happened. Why? I guess Friendly's just doesn't really intend to live up to their name. At least where the customers are concerned.

Please note: during the ride in the ambulance, I photographed the burns on my son's leg and hand. I also photographed my wife holding him and the tears in her eyes along with the look of anguish on her face. I am not going to post those photographs here because they are too graphic and can be disturbing. Perhaps I will mail them to the waitress and the manager to remind them of what they did. What do you think? I'd like to know.

-Jeff