Recently I have discovered a fantastic new restaurant - Zambrero. This place serves up the most amazingly fresh, tasty and HEALTHY Mexican I've ever eaten at a reasonable price and I quickly decided it would become our fall back for nights when we're not up to cooking. So on Monday night we headed down for some tasty Mexican and as we're waiting in line I felt James stiffen in my arms. When I turned to look at him he was holding a red little hand out and blinking in shock. The tears and squeals started immediately. For a second I had no idea what he'd done but it quickly became obvious that he'd reached out and grabbed the sandwich press which, when opened, came up above the glass partition.
As he started to cry I whacked his hand onto the cold bottle of Vitamin Water I was holding and he calmed down almost immediately. I kept his hand on the bottle and he seemed happy enough, so I assumed that the burn wasn't that bad and that the cool bottle had fixed things. But by the time we got home the tears had started again, and escalated, and when I finally prized his hand open under the cool water of the tap I could see blisters forming on his fingers. Unfortunately he was getting more and more distressed and we quickly made the decision to take him to the hospital.
By the time I got him there he was hysterical, his small body stiff with pain and his breath ragged and catchy in between the screaming and the huge gulps of air he was trying to choke down. My happy little guy was clearly in a world of hurt and I was slowly unraveling.
No matter how disconnected and sociopathic you are, your kids will be your Achilles heel. I am sure it's some sort of biological instinct thing because there's no way it's rational. My son has a minor but nasty burn to his hand but in my head he needs skin grafts and months of rehabilitation. He's going to be scarred for life. He might lose his hand. Naturally, it's all my fault. I cry while I hold him and the nurses attended to his rapidly-swelling hand. Mentally I flay myself alive for not realising he could reach something so dangerously hot, for failing to see how badly he'd burned himself...basically for being a bad, inattentive Mum who has allowed her son to be maimed.
Somewhere in all of this the nurse and I manage to force medicine down his throat and, about half an hour later he begins to calm right down...20 minutes after that and he's giggling woozily and laying back in my arms, clearly stoned five ways from Sunday. This is PainStop Night - a codeine concoction that has somehow been approved for littlies. His fingers and palm are swollen and blistered but he no longer seems bothered by it and he's clearly on his way to dreamland.
By the time I get home we've been at the hospital for two hours. Mentally, I'm wrecked. I'm also furious with myself and that stupid sandwich press. In a frame of mind we're going to call "something less than reasonable" I fire off an email to Zambrero's head office relating the whole thing to them. Here's a copy;
"Tonight my husband and I brought our family to your Belconnen store for some tasty Zambrero goodness. As we waited in line my 14-month-old baby son started screaming and I realised that he'd reached over and grabbed your (obviously very hot) sandwich press and burned himself badly. I've just spent the last two hours in emergency with a baby with badly burned fingers. He has blisters all over his fingers and the palm of his hand. I briefly flirted with the idea of sending you a photo but decided that that would be incredibly mean and totally counter-productive. Now the whole reason he was in my arms was to help him stay out of trouble. At first I spent a lot of time mentally whipping myself over what happened (and believe me I still am) and then I thought, why on earth would you have something so hot within easy reach of ANYONE without a glass panel to protect it or a sign to warn people?
I will give you a call to follow up from this email but, basically, I would really appreciate it if you would address this so no one else winds up burning themselves. I can't begin to tell you how horrible it is to nurse a screaming baby and be completely unable to relieve his pain. I would love to know that this will never happen to anyone else. Thank you for your time."
I think I got the balance between "totally psychotic mother bear" and "can we not fix this" just right. I am not proud of this email but in my defence I was very tired and very upset. I was not eloquent or polite, I'll grant you.
Anyways, in my head I brace myself for the "we're not liable" brush-off that I am 100% convinced will be framed in an email along the lines of "you really should have been more careful because your son is your responsibility, not ours".
I am pleased and ashamed to admit that I was horribly wrong. By the next morning the CEO of Zambrero had written to me in person. Here is his email;
"Good evening rebecca,
This is stuart cook, the ceo of the zambrero group. I will fix this immediately and please email me your address and I will send you a letter of apology and if you would be okay to call me so I can find out the full extent of the situation and make sure nothing like this happens again.
My mobile is XXXX. Please feel free to call me anytime tonight or tomorrow.
My deepest apologies,
Stuart Cook
Chief Executive Officer
Zambrero Group "
What a class act! Stuart's not lowering himself to my level. We have a genuine apology, a promise to fix it and all of it probably legally the equivalent of admission of guilt. If Stuart's lawyer saw this he would have had a fit and then tasered Stuart for even contemplating sending it. This was followed up by a phone call later in the day to check on James, reassure me that all Zambrero stores had been checked and perspex ordered to be installed in every store that had the same issue so that it would never, ever happen to anyone ever again. Charles went back to Zambrero tonight and, true to his word, Stuart has fixed the issue in less than 48 hours. Can you believe that businessmen like this still exist???
I am humbled and awed by this man's ethical, human approach to what was an enormously traumatic experience for us. The term "litigation" has been bandied around by people who have heard about this and I'm 100% sure that it crossed Stuart's mind the instant he saw my email. He could have taken a very different approach. He could have told me it was my fault for not being more careful and refused to address the problem. He could have...but he didn't.
When it comes down to it, we would probably have an excellent case for compensation if we decided to sue Zambrero. But the reality is that this was a genuine accident. I have no doubt that they had no idea that someone could be hurt the way James got hurt. Once he touched that sandwich press the damage was already done. No amount of money would have taken his pain away. No amount of money would have stopped the nightmares I had all night or made me feel better while I sat nursing him in the hospital.
But knowing that the same thing will never happen to anyone else does make me feel a lot better. Knowing that when I buy my next burrito my money will be going to an ethical business that cares about its customers makes me feel better. Learning that there are still people and businesses out there that value people more than the almighty dollar has been invaluable. Stuart has won us as customers for life. A big thank you to him and Zambrero for their concern and their efforts.
A little photo of the poor little hand the following day... blisters on his palm, all four fingers and his thumb. Poor little guy...
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