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A woman who says she stopped at an Oregon Fred Meyer to buy a rotisserie chicken and ended up burning off a chunk of skin after accidentally touching the heated metal frame around the display filed a nearly $1 million lawsuit against the grocery chain last week.
Angela Steffen’s lawsuit says she suffered no minor injury. Rather, she experienced a third-degree burn, which is one category below the most serious form of burn, and an infection that sent her to the emergency room days later, said attorney Liz Walling.
“Her skin melted to the frame — essentially gluing her hand to the metal with her own skin,” Walling said in an email. “When she yanked her hand away, her skin was torn off leaving a visible chunk of her skin on the metal.”
The suit says a deli worker saw Steffen get burned, offered her a Band-Aid and told Steffen that “that happens to a lot of people.” The suit claims that Fred Meyer failed to correct a “dangerous” and “recurring hazard to customers.”
Fred Meyer spokesperson Tiffany Sanders declined to comment on the lawsuit, citing the pending litigation.
According to the suit, Steffen stopped at the Fred Meyer store on Division Avenue in Eugene on Sept. 15, 2024. After getting burned, Steffen, a registered nurse, bought wound-care supplies at the store, went home and tended to her injuries on her own, Walling said.
But Walling said her client, who lived in Lane County at the time, awoke the next day in “excruciating pain.” So Steffen went to urgent care, where staff gave her a shot of antibiotics, replaced the bandages and started a course of oral antibiotics, Walling said.
But Steffen’s condition worsened to the point that three days after burning herself, her sister brought her to an emergency room because Steffen’s pain and swelling had increased, she was nauseous and “on the verge of passing out,” Walling said.
The suit seeks $11,000 for medical costs and lost wages for the more than two weeks that Steffen was unable to work, according to her attorney.
“Her job requires use of both hands in patient care,” Walling said.
The suit also seeks $50,000 for future medical costs and $900,000 for noneconomic damages for pain and suffering, which includes a scar on the top of Steffen’s left hand.
“The jury will get to determine what Ms. Steffen’s noneconomic damages are considering the nightmare Fred Meyer put her through for something that should have been a mundane task – picking up a rotisserie chicken for dinner on your way home from work,” Walling said.
The suit was filed Thursday in Multnomah County Circuit Court, citing the county as a place where Fred Meyer does business.
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