Abby Lee Miller Files Multi-Million Dollar Lawsuit After Hotel Door Falls Over, Traps Her in Wheelchair
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Abby Lee Miller is suing the Hampton Inn & Suites by Hilton for millions after a hotel door allegedly fell on her, trapping her in her wheelchair for at least six minutes.
According to court documents obtained by PEOPLE, the incident happened when the former Dance Moms star, 56, was staying at a Hampton Inn in Santa Monica, California, for an extended period of time between the months of March and October 2020.
The docs allege that in August, Miller — who has been using an electric wheelchair since 2018 due to complications of Burkitt Lymphoma, which affects her spinal cord — wheeled herself into her hotel room's bathroom to wash her hands in the sink.
Upon leaving the bathroom, the back left wheel on the reality star's wheelchair got caught underneath the sliding bathroom door. As she attempted to free the wheel herself, the 300+ lb. door fell directly on her head and left shoulder, trapping Miller in her wheelchair "for approximately six to twelve minutes," the documents state.
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The complaint says that, although Miller was screaming for help, hotel guests did not come to her aid, instead enlisting two staff members to lift the door off of her. She was then transported to St. John's Hospital in Santa Monica to treat her injuries, which allegedly still affect her to this day, as she's been in physical therapy since the incident.
In addition to getting pinned underneath a hotel door, Miller also alleges that the hotel staff "ignored" her "accessibility needs when she contacted the front desk for assistance."
Court docs also say that she was unable to use the laundry room because it was not wheelchair accessible, and that her "path of travel" was blocked daily by housekeeping carts left in the hallways of the hotel.
RELATED VIDEO: Abby Lee Miller Plans to Walk Again by September After Being Wheelchair-Bound for Over a Year
Miller is suing the hotel chain for negligence, emotional distress, unlawful discrimination, discrimination against individuals with disabilities, and false imprisonment. She is seeking at least $8.5 million in damages.
"While we cannot comment about ongoing litigation, Abby Lee Miller is committed to using her public platform to bring attention to the multitude of indignities suffered by the failure of corporations to provide the same accessibility and services availed to the non-disabled community. It's 2022, these lawsuits should be a relic of the past. Architectural barriers against the disabled community is a humiliation that no one should suffer," Miller said in a statement to PEOPLE.
Miller, who rose to fame on Lifetime's Dance Moms when the series premiered more than a decade ago, was diagnosed with a rare form of non-Hodgkin's lymphoma in 2018 after undergoing surgery for what was initially believed to be a spinal infection.
