Girl w/ diarrhea craps herself after an Old Navy store refuses to her to use restroom
Got this off MM. The manager of the store should be shot!
Shopping Turns Nightmarish With No Bathroom Access
Teen's Crohn's Condition Prompts Legislative Assistance
http://www.nbc5.com/health/3663327/detail.html
CHICAGO -- A Chicago-area teenager's trip to a well-known clothing store turned into a humiliating nightmare recently when, despite her medical condition, she was denied access to a bathroom.
HealthWatch reporter Nesita Kwan talked with 14-year-old Ally Bain following the incident and learned that the teen's summer days are much like those of other teenagers.
Images: Teen's Crohn's Disease Humiliation
http://www.nbc5.com/slideshow/healt...409/detail.html
She plays with friends, she's a budding young painter who spends time on her artwork and, like most teens, she likes to shop. But, Ally also has Crohn's disease, a sometimes severe and painful inflammation of the intestine that is often accompanied by uncontrollable diarrhea.
"When I have to go to the bathroom, I have to go at that time," the teen told NBC5.
Due to her illness, Ally has a card that explains the situation, just in case she finds herself somewhere with no public restroom. Kwan said that she's only used the card once, at the Old Navy store in Norridge.
Her mother, Lisa Bain, told Kwan that the two of them had one of the worst experiences in their lives at the store.
"I told my mom I had to go to the bathroom, and she said 'OK,'" Ally recalled of their day at Old Navy.
The Bains say they waited 5 - 10 minutes for the manager to arrive and give them permission, but even with the card, the answer was "no."
"So, my mom was saying that I really do need to go, and I started crying because it gets really hard to hold it," Ally said.
"He just kept saying, 'I'm making a managerial decision and we don't have a public washroom,'" Lisa Bain said.
The two went back and forth, and "then it happened," Kwan said. The teen lost control and soiled herself in her most embarrassing moment, right in the store.
"When I couldn't hold it anymore, it was very humiliating. I felt like people knew that it happened," Ally said.
Her mother said she can't recall ever being so frustrated and angry.
"He didn't pay any attention to the fact that she was crying," Lisa Bain said of the store manager. "There was no compassion."
Furious, Lisa Bain bought her daughter a change of clothes, left the store and immediately began calling Old Navy officials.
"She wanted an apology and a promise this would not happen again," Kwan said.
"I don't want her to have to go through that, or others like her," the concerned mother told NBC5.
More than two months later, the company released a statement (it refused an on-camera interview):
"As a direct result of this incident, we have clarified our policy on customer use of non-public restrooms ... If it's due to an emergency (a restroom) must be made available."
"We wanted to make it better for me and anyone else it might happen to," Ally said.
Kwan said that NBC5 asked an Old Navy representative if the store manager in question was reprimanded or fired. The company declined to answer questions about a specific employee's record due to privacy issues, but NBC5 learned that, as of last week, the individual was still employed as a manager at the Norridge store.
Ally and Lisa Bain have contacted Illinois state legislator Kathy Ryg about the incident. Ryg has agreed to sponsor a bill making it illegal to refuse use of a bathroom in cases of special need.
For more information about that proposed bill, e-mail Ryg at this address.
