Act like you’re blessed. Talk like you’re blessed. Walk like you’re blessed. Think like you’re blessed. Smile like you’re blessed. Dress like you’re blessed. Put actions behind your faith, and one day you will see it become a reality.
She had third degree burns on her genitals, needed a skin graft to repair the damage and was permanently disfigured, and left disabled for two years. Part of her original $20,000 claim was for her daughter’s lost income while she cared for her. Also, there were 700 previous complaints of people being burned by McDonald’s coffee, which they quietly paid off. They offered Liebeck $800.
Stella Liebeck was 79 years old at the time of the incident, and the settlement helped her pay for a live-in nurse as she was partially disabled for two full years after being so badly burned she went into shock. She passed away in 2004 with little to no quality of life per her own daughter. She originally sought $20,000 dollars to cover her eight day hospital stay (including skin graphs) and compensation for her daughter’s lost wages after she spent three weeks providing round-the-clock care.
Incidently, liquids served at 190 degrees is capable of causing third degree burns–which cause severe, permanent damage all the way to the muscle layer–within 3 seconds of contact with human skin. If you have a strong stomach, you can even find photographic evidence of her wounds with a quick google search. This didn’t stop almost every major news outlet perpetuating MacDonald’s coordinated smear campaign against her. MacDonalds’ justification for this was basically, well, all fast food is hot and we have better things to worry about. Literally. This deliberately manufactured overly litigious gold digger stereotype is still remembered today via the Stella Awards, which mocks all the “frivolous” lawsuits against your favorite brands. Named after a little old lady who was permanently disfigured and handicapped from a ridiculously dangerous product.
Classy.
Never, ever take a corporation’s side over aprivate citizen when lawsuits are involved.
She eventually died under the care of a live-in nurse from infection complications due to the fact that the damage had to be treated repeatedly over multiple years. While being mocked *worldwide* and constantly hassled by the media. The last few years of this woman’s life were a miserable hell because McDonald’s was too cheap to pay her medical costs when she asked.
Not just that–the last few years of her life were miserable because McDonald’s was too cheap to throw away old coffee.
Also read Fake Law by the Secret Barrister. It’s primarily concerned with the UK legal system, but this story appears in it for all the above reasons - the entire point of the book is teaching people the truth behind the sensationalist headlines, and why those headlines exist in the first place (pssssst it’s governments and corporations manipulating the public to believe things are being blown out of proportion and/or the people involved are stupid or greedy)
trust that the loving energy you fuse into the universe will come back to you, maybe not in the time frame or ways you are expecting, but it will find you and warm you, this exchange is eternal
