I heard from a local plumber that he had to replace a toilet for an obese woman, who he said is over 500lbs. Supposedly she sat on it and the base broke, and she was injured after falling over with the toilet. Trying to picture this occurance is almost laughable, but I'm sure it wasn't for her. Especially if the supply pipe broke off at the same time (I dont know the details).
It was a floor mounted toilet, not a wall mount. I did ask him that!
I dont think toilets come with a listed weight limit, at least I've never seen it listed. I'm sure many of the cheap plastic seats break first, but everything has a limit.
Has anyone ever seen a weight limit for standard toilets? Just curious, since I dont personally know anyone who is severely obese, but I've seen a few people in town who might exceed the limit. (Possibly that same woman?)....
Hi, I know a guy who has a son weighing over 500 lbs. He told me one day his son said, "Dad, can I borrow 20 bucks?" "What for?" "I need taxi money to go get a soda can" This kid used to be around 250, he drinks Coke all day. His younger brother is normal young married man, good looking. Maybe he should sue Coca Cola?
Actually, someone once told me about a toilet going thru the floor in a mobile home. Since they are built with those lousy particle board floors, this did not surprise me.
I would tend to think that extreme weight like that would cause the wax ring to ooze out of the flange, and cause a leak. If I was to install a toilet for someone that heavy, I'd probably use one of those foam rings, not wax.
While I do feel sorry for the person who had the accident. But not knowing what really happened in detail, I have visualized all sorts of funny stuff. I agree, it would be a good skit!
Kind of reminds me of going camping many years ago, and some woman dropped her car keys into an outhouse hole, because she was using the tiny penlight flashlight on her key ring, (at night). Every guy in camp was trying to help get them out. The flashlight made it easy to see them, but they were about 8 feet down, and in all that poop. Someone finally did manage to fish them out of the hole, and rinsed them off with water. But the owner said she would not touch them until they were sanitized. Some drunken idiot told her to toss them in the campfire and that would sanitize them. Besides burning up the flashlight, the fire melted the brass keys! She ended up waiting till morning, then paying a small fortune to get a locksmith. I still laugh thinking about that ordeal!
On a positive note: Maybe that saved her life. She was probably too drunk to drive anyhow!
But in this case, it's not stupidity. Granted getting that obese is wrong, but there does not seem to be any listed weight limit on toilets. Which is why I posted this.... There has to be some sort of limit. (Of course that dont take into account flaws. This toilet may have already been cracked at the base).
Overweight people should KNOW the weight limits on common household items! I've seen far too many large people sit in those plastic lawn chairs and watch the chair explode under them. That explains why there are so many of those crappy (broken) chairs left laying in parks after the 4th of July fireworks!
The mcd case was nowhere near as stupid as many think. In fact I think it made sense.
They sold coffee that was iirc 20 degrees hotter than anyone else's coffee. They sold it from the drive-through window where they knew people would be riding while they drank.(although I now read that her grandson stopped the car so she could add cream and sugar. The car had no cupholders and she held it between her knees. The cap stuck to the cup and she sippled the whole cup. There had been something like 700 other burn complaints, and iirc they paid those people off modestly but did nothing to prevent it from happening again. The plaintiff got 3rd degree burns on the inside of her thighs. Because she had clothes on**, the clothes, sweatpants, kept the hot coffee in contact with her skin making it worse. **And was strapped into the car so she couldnt' quickly stand up and pull the cloth away from her, and perhaps in traffic where she felt she couldn't even stop until she pulled to the curb
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"Liebeck was hospitalized for eight days while she underwent skin grafting, followed by two years of medical treatment."
A major issue in marginal negligence cases is foreseeability. The 700 cases that preceded hers made it clear that what happened to her was not only foreseeable, but burns had already happened.
"ABC News called the case "the poster child of excessive lawsuits"" but I've been calling ABC news the cxrappiest of all tv news shows.
"Liebeck was taken to the hospital, where it was determined that she had suffered third-degree burns on six percent of her skin and lesser burns over sixteen percent."
"Liebeck sought to settle with McDonald's for $20,000 to cover her actual and anticipated expenses. Her past medical expenses were $10,500; her anticipated future medical expenses were approximately $2,500; and her loss of income was approximately $5,000 for a total of approximately $18,000.[14] Instead, the company offered only $800. "
McD was cocky. "Previously, New Mexico had never found for a Plaintiff in a product liability suit. Two scheduled mediations were not attended by McDonald's. [15] McDonald's refused Morgan's offer to settle for $90,000. Morgan offered to settle for $300,000, and a mediator suggested $225,000 just before trial, but McDonald's refused these final pre-trial attempts to settle.[2]"
But offers to settle are not admissable at t he trial, so the jury verdict wasn't influenced by them.
"During the case, Liebeck's attorneys discovered that McDonald's required franchisees to hold coffee at 180?190 °F (82?88 °C). At 190 °F (88 °C), the coffee would cause a third-degree burn in two to seven seconds. Liebeck's attorney argued that coffee should never be served hotter than 140 °F (60 °C), and that a number of other establishments served coffee at a substantially lower temperature than McDonald's. Liebeck's lawyers presented the jury with evidence that 180 °F (82 °C) coffee like that McDonald?s served may produce third-degree burns (where skin grafting is necessary) in about 12 to 15 seconds. Lowering the temperature to 160 °F (71 °C) would increase the time for the coffee to produce such a burn to 20 seconds. Liebeck's attorneys argued that these extra seconds could provide adequate time to remove the coffee from exposed skin, thereby preventing many burns. McDonald's claimed that the reason for serving such hot coffee in its drive-through windows was that those who purchased the coffee typically were commuters who wanted to drive a distance with the coffee; the high initial temperature would keep the coffee hot during the trip.[2] However, the company's own research showed that some customers intend to consume the coffee immediately while driving.[3] "
Of course they did.
"Other documents obtained from McDonald's showed that from 1982 to 1992 the company had received more than 700 reports of people burned by McDonald's coffee to varying degrees of severity, and had settled claims arising from scalding injuries for more than $500,000"
"McDonald's quality control manager, Christopher Appleton, testified that this number of injuries was insufficient to cause the company to evaluate its practices. He argued that all foods hotter than 130 °F (54 °C) constituted a burn hazard, and that restaurants had more pressing dangers to warn about. The plaintiffs argued that Appleton conceded that McDonald's coffee would burn the mouth and throat if consumed when served.[17]"
"A twelve-person jury reached its verdict on August 18, 1994.[16] Applying the principles of comparative negligence, the jury found that McDonald's was 80% responsible for the incident and Liebeck was 20% at fault. Though there was a warning on the coffee cup, the jury decided that the warning was neither large enough nor sufficient. They awarded Liebeck US$200,000 in compensatory damages, which was then reduced by
20% to $160,000. In addition, they awarded her $2.7 million in punitive damages. The jurors apparently arrived at this figure from Morgan's suggestion to penalize McDonald's for one or two days' worth of coffee revenues, which were about $1.35 million per day.[2] The judge reduced punitive damages to $480,000, three times the compensatory amount, for a total of $640,000. The decision was appealed by both McDonald's and Liebeck in December 1994, but the parties settled out of court for an undisclosed amount less than $600,000.[18]"
Much more at the url.
My friend used to be a mystery shopper, and one of her repeat stores was Starbucks. She bought a piece of pastry (which I ate when I was there) and went quickly outside where she would measure the temp of the coffee. Unfortunately I don't rember what it usually was, and she probably doesn't either. Starbucks doesn't have a drive-through.
Or bucket seats in automobiles. Ever been following such car in traffic and notice the tops of the front buckets leaning in toward each other - especially in older cars?
That would indicate not only the seat is strained by overweight - but so is the FLOOR pan!
I had weight loss surgery in 2001, I went from 315 pounds to 175 pound in 9 months. I looked bad, settled in around 200, and today in 2015 weigh about 220 pounds. I would be less if chocolate never existed:( I am happy with this weight.
Anyway my surgeon dr philip schauer specialized in the tough cases. I think the heaviest was over 1500 punds. People came in custom wheelchairs.
The surgeons office had rest room toilets designed for 2500 pounds. the entire office had custom fixtures....
My wonderful surgeon said all weight loss surgeons should do that too:)
Incidently dont think fat people are lazy!!
Next time you go grocery shopping, pick up and carry a 50 pound bag of dog food, as you do your shopping:(
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