SAN DIEGO (NEWS 8) — Lindsey Kennedy needed stitches and her cut has taken months to heal. She says Fashion Valley Mall is refusing to pay her medical bills.
"As you can see I still have the scar, it's right across the top of my toe," Kennedy said. "It was very gruesome. It was probably the most pain I've ever been in in my life."
Kennedy had to get 10 stitches for her injury.
She says she was shopping at Fashion Valley Mall in early March, about to go up an escalator outside of Nordstrom, when she noticed the stairs weren't moving.
"I looked around, there was no signs, so I proceeded to walk up the steps of the escalator," said Kennedy.
She says, she was almost at the top when something sharp on one of the steps pierced her sandal, and tripped her.
"I landed barefoot on the step and the stair actually shredded my toe," Kennedy said.
She says the stitches had to stay in for two painful months and she had to foot the bill.
Kennedy says Fashion Valley Mall and its insurance company refused to cover her medical expenses - a couple thousand dollars so far, and possibly more if there's any permanent nerve damage.
"They just said they did not have a duty to warn me that the escalator wasn't working, which I feel isn't right," she said.
A student at Cal Western School of Law, Kennedy says she will fight for what's right.
She says the day of her injury, there was no warning sign, but when she went back several weeks later, she took a photo to show it had since been blocked off.
"If something isn't working properly, if the escalator isn't working properly, it's their responsibility to make sure that mall goers like me - and everyone else in San Diego - can go to the mall safely and not have to worry about getting hurt," said Kennedy.