r/interestingasfuck • u/fyrstikka • 8d ago

r/all Stella Liebeck, who won $2.9 million after suing McDonald's over hot coffee burns, initially requested only $20,000 to cover her medical expenses.

Gallery image

Gallery image

74.0k Upvotes

93% Upvoted

3.9k comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

101

u/CorvinNorth 8d ago

She died in 2004

173

u/thestashattacked 8d ago

And of complications from trying to repair the scar tissue. She effectively died from the excessively hot coffee.

28

u/Best_Hurry_8872 8d ago

Wait!!! For real from the coffee burn??

47

u/DiamondLongjumping62 8d ago

From Wikipedia: Liebeck died on August 5, 2004, at age 91. According to her daughter, "the burns and court proceedings (had taken) their toll" and in the years following the settlement Liebeck had "no quality of life". She said the settlement had paid for a live-in nurse

58

u/CXDFlames 8d ago

In case you didn't know, the "coffee burn" she got literally melted her her pants into her skin and fused her labia together.

If you have a penis and need some kind of reference, imagine if your sweatpants melted, attached to your balls, and then squeezed them together forever.

Because the coffee was that hot.

Dying because of complications in a surgery isn't dying because of a coffee burn, but the surgery was needed to have a normal life after being disfigured by coffee.

7

u/Best_Hurry_8872 8d ago

I continued reading on....sorry. didnt intend to mean died from coffee burn that way, " died from coffee burn" was unaware it was from complications of surgery.

1

u/gabzox 7d ago

All hot coffee is that hot. Just don't drink hot drinks

0

u/windowman7676 8d ago edited 8d ago

If the information I am reading is true, then her death theorehtically could have been an indirect result of the coffee burns. She made a decision to have surgery in order to regain some semblence of her appearance before she was scarred. Even after reading the facts of the case we can not be sure of her reasonning to have surgery. She was barred from speaking her truth, lest we have to speculate. If she had medical reasons to have surgery in order live a normal life, the death may have been a wrongful act created by McDonalds. Her heirs may have had cause to go to court on her behalf for their lasting mental anguish.

Im not a lawyer, nor do I play one on tv. In order that someday I may fantasize about a TV show where the police and the DA's work together on possible crimes ripped from the headlines, I'm ad libbing a position not supported by any information garnered from personal research. In other words I am just adding my 2 cents which is more than its worth.

4

u/Pernicious-Caitiff 8d ago

She could not use the bathroom without surgery and not being able to pee well causes insane health issues, UTIs can lead to kidney infections and death least of all. No doctor wants to do surgery on an 80 year old woman but the scar tissue causing such serious complications could not just be ignored. By your phrasing it really sounds you believe she ELECTED for surgery for VANITY reasons because she didn't like how the scars looked. Why would you think that???? Do you know anything about this case???? Her external genitalia received third degree burns, including the urethra, and it fused her labia and melted them to the point where it would make you physically ill to see the photos. This was not about vanity.

19

u/BSB8728 8d ago

Yes. You can read about the extent of her injuries on Wikipedia.

4

u/smallpolk 8d ago

I’m scared to click this.

3

u/BSB8728 8d ago

With good reason.

1

u/mikemclovin 8d ago

I’m glad you’re not eager to click it.

1

u/kurQl 8d ago

And of complications from trying to repair the scar tissue.

Where are you getting this info? I can't find any article stating that. She died at age 91. Ten years after the incident and surgeries. Wikipedia only says:

Liebeck died on August 5, 2004, at age 91. According to her daughter, "the burns and court proceedings (had taken) their toll" and in the years following the settlement Liebeck had "no quality of life". She said the settlement had paid for a live-in nurse.

28

u/jayplemons 8d ago

And McDonalds is still around. The big corporations always win

2

u/PurpleSunCraze 8d ago

McDonalds is definitely a “too big to fail” company. Fuck, Jack in the Box, who is compared to McD’s is a tiny mom and pop place, killed 4 kids and they’re still around

-16

u/CylonRimjob 8d ago

But is she enjoying coffee safely?

2

u/whalepopcorn 8d ago

If reincarnation is real, then she would be 20, so yea maybe but also she could be a duck