A Dallas couple left severely burnt after a bar’s flaming cocktail exploded on them is pursuing legal action.
Abigael Hance-Briscoe, 32, and Dustin Johnson were enjoying a night out before the horrifying accident.
The couple went to grab drinks at a bar called Twisted Trick on August 26. Johnson ordered the Flaming Pineapple – an Everclear-based drink, according to the lawsuit filed with Dallas County Court.
The elaborate drink was garnished with a set-on-fire lime. The bartender poured even more Everclear into the drink and torched it while serving it, causing the glass to explode, the suit alleges.
Flames from the shattered drink rapidly spread toward the couple, leaving them with second- and third-degree burns on their necks, arms and faces.
The lawsuit claims Hance-Briscoe and Johnson ‘have suffered serious, disabling and permanently disfiguring personal injuries’ from Twisted Trick’s ‘negligence.’
They have accused the bartender of ‘improperly and dangerously’ serving the drink.
While both sustained serious injuries, Johnson was hospitalized for a few days while Hance-Briscoe had to stay for seven weeks at Parkland Health’s burn unit.
Hance-Briscoe and Dustin Johnson filed a lawsuit against Twisted Trick, the Dallas bar where they sustained their life-changing injuries
The flaming drink that burned the couple was a Flaming Pineapple, which came garnished with a burning lime
Hance-Briscoe said the scalding hot flames essentially ‘melted’ her bra to her body. Hospital staff had to cut it off.
‘They had to shave my head in the hospital to get access to the ear and the scalp where it was burned,’ she told WFAA. ‘My skin was falling off of my arms.’
Not only did her debilitating burns require three skin grafts, but Hance-Briscoe got sepsis, which has made is hard to walk. She now uses a walker to get around.
She said to WFAA: ‘One little choice of a restaurant can make all that life-changing difference.’
Some of Johnson’s skin was saved by his beard, but his arms, chest and neck were not spared.
According to a GoFundMe made on the couple’s behalf, they were supposed to move into a new home on August 30th, but their health issues drastically changed their plans.
Based on an October 12 GoFundMe update, Hance-Briscoe had started a ‘gradual return to work’ and Johnson has gone back full-time.
Although they are moving forward with their lives, they have been traumatized by the night they were burned and are suffering the long-term effects.
Johnson’s upper body was badly burnt, but his facial hair saved most of his face from the fire
Johnson’s chest was left raw, peeling and blistering after the flames met his skin
Johnson left the hospital after a few days, but Hance-Briscoe had to stay for seven weeks
Johnson told WFAA: ‘That moment gets replayed more than it should.’
According to the lawsuit, the couple is requesting over $1 million from the owners of Twisted Trick, which has since closed down.
It claims the establishment and its staff ‘had a duty to exercise the degree of care that a reasonably careful person would use to avoid harm,’ something they allegedly failed to provide.
But the Twisted Trick’s legal team asserted the bar ‘generally denies each and every allegation made against it,’ according to the defendant’s response to the lawsuit.
The document claims that Twisted Trick is not at fault for the incurred injuries and any harm done was ’caused or aggravated’ by the couple’s ‘failure to use reasonable diligence.’
It goes on to say the lawsuit is based on ‘independent, unforeseeable, superseding, and/or intervening cause’ that having nothing to do with the bartender or the bar.
The couple’s relationship has played a critical role in their recovery, as they said the only way they have been able to get through these grueling times is by depending on each other.
‘I remember saying going into the ambulance, “You can’t separate me from him. He’s all I have,”‘ Hance-Briscoe told WFAA, referring to Johnson.
An attorney for the owners of the Twisted Trick did not immediately respond to the DailyMail.com’s request for comment.
The couple’s devastating lawsuit comes after a Tennessee man died from a scorching hotel shower.
Alex Chronis, 76, tragically lost his life on June 19, 2022 after he took a shower at Econo Lodge in Erlanger, Kentucky- about 10 miles across the border from Cincinnati, Ohio, on November 19, 2021.
Following the incident, Chronis, of Knoxville, Tennessee, was in and out of the hospital and had to undergo grueling procedures, according to the lawsuit.
Johnson’s chest has healed, but his burn marks will always be visible due to their severity
Hance-Briscoe now must use a walker to move, as she suffered to sepsis related to her burns
Hance-Briscoe said she could not get through these injuries or her recovery without Johnson by her side
‘His death was caused by complications from the serious scalding wounds that were so easily preventable had the hotel management simply had a procedure in place for their customer’s safety,’ said Jeff Blankenship, the family’s lawyer.
On April 4, 2021, a student vacationing in Cancun, Mexico suffered second-degree burns on her face and arm from a flaming drink at a restaurant.
Marissa Daniel, 26, was enjoying her last night on holiday with friends when footage showed a sever pouring alcohol on flames at their table, similar to Hance-Briscoe and Johnson’s experience.
Daniel was scorched when the drink exploded in her face as she tried to stop her friend being burned.
She claimed the staff did not do enough to prevent the accident or help while she was battling the flames.
