Student Scalded by Hot Water in Dorms

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Maintenance has changed the shower handle in a 23rd floor suite of Sandburg North Tower after University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee freshman, Madison Brink, made a trip to the hospital Oct. 23 when she was scalded by her shower the previous day.

Madison took the city bus to St. Mary’s Columbia Hospital where the doctor classified her injury as a burn but didn’t know the exact degree because it “was something they have never seen before.” After they gave her an antibiotic cream, Brink said, her burn on the back of her calves which “resembled a road rash” took about a week to heal.

Brink had to fill out an incident report but said that she is not receiving any compensation for her injury, and Brink and her parents are not planning on asking for any. However, she did say that her family was rather concerned and upset because officials didn’t seem to change much plumbing wise.

Despite her concern and her parents’,  Brink expressed that she felt UWM officials did what they should have done in that they scheduled a follow up appointment with her. Still, she felt “they weren’t really concerned.” Brink was also dissatisfied with how quickly word spread of her injury through the 23rd and 24th floor of the dorms, though she acknowledged that wasn’t anything UWM staff could prevent.

There has been discussion among 23rd and 24th floor north tower residents since this incident that shower water is now too cold. Questioning whether the water temperature “had something to do with the girl who got burned,” 24th floor resident, Ashlee Briggs, acknowledges that “this could be a problem in winter,” and sarcastically, “I am going home to shower.”

The cold water temperature problem has since resolved itself, however residents are still “hesitant to believe that this problem won’t arise again,” Briggs said when asked if she was satisfied with the returning heat. And a content Madison Brink wasn’t concerned in regards to her incident anymore as she repeated, “Honestly (it) feels like UWM did what they should have done.”