A hospital failed to clean up water leaking from an air conditioning unit into its hallway, causing a man to fall, according to a recently filed complaint.
Sean Williams filed a lawsuit June 1 in Jefferson County District Court against Baptist Hospitals of Southeast Texas and Memorial Hermann Healthcare System.
Williams claims he visited his grandfather at Memorial Hermann Baptist Beaumont Hospital on June 28, 2009, when the incident occurred.
"After visiting with his grandfather, he left the room and was walking down a hall in the hospital," the suit states. "As he was walking, he slipped in water on the floor and fell backwards, twisting his knee and hitting his back and head."
After the fall, Williams noticed the water had come from under a door behind which sat an air conditioning unit, according to the complaint.
Because of his fall, Williams incurred medical costs; experienced physical pain, suffering, physical impairment, disfigurement and mental anguish; and lost his earnings, the complaint says.
Williams blames Baptist Hospitals of Southeast Texas for causing his fall, saying it failed to inspect and maintain its floors in a safe condition, failed to inspect and maintain the air conditioning unit so it did not leak water and failed to post warnings of the dangerous condition that existed in its hallway.
In his complaint, Williams seeks a judgment within the jurisdictional limits of Jefferson County District Court, plus pre-judgment interest at the maximum rate allowed by law, post-judgment interest at the legal rate, costs and other relief to which he may be entitled.
David A. Bryant Jr. of The Bryant Law Firm in Spring will be representing him.
The case has been assigned to Judge Milton Shuffield, 136th District Court.
Jefferson County District Court case number: D186-979.