Hotel Guest Suffers Brain Injury Due to Shower Defect

FLORIDA—Last week I read about a female hotel guest who suffered a traumatic brain injury (TBI) in her room’s tub/shower. As she was preparing to take a shower she fell while entering the tub/shower of a well-known hotel chain. But this was not a simple minor fall.

The investigation of this incident revealed that the tub/shower was missing several important safety features. The missing features included non-slip grip strips and safety hand rails. Consequently, as she entered the shower, the lack of grip strips caused her to lose traction. and there were no safety hand rails for her to catch herself as she went down. This woman suffered a skull fracture, a closed head injury (TBI) and a large laceration in her hairline requiring staples to close the gaping wound.