Man files lawsuit over George R. Brown Convention Center fall

HOUSTON (KTRK) -- A lawsuit filed Thursday claims there were not sufficient protections to keep a man from falling down an elevator shaft at the George R. Brown Convention Center in June.

Tobey Felts said he was entering a maintenance room where he had been many times before when he fell 80 feet. He said his memory from the day is incomplete but he was attending to part of the fire suppression system. He said he did not know the floor had been demolished leading into an elevator shaft.

"It's difficult every day. But with what I've been through, I'm just glad to be alive," Felts said.

Tobey's wife Kristen was nearly nine months pregnant when it happened. She delivered her baby while he was still in a coma over the summer.

"Having to do that all by myself. No mother wants to have to do that," she said.

The Felts' attorney Scott Krist, said Tobey has two broken legs, head trauma and many other injuries.

"He had to learn to walk. He had to learn to talk. You have to learn everything again," Krist said.

The lawsuit filed Thursday names Vaughan Construction and subcontractors working at the facility. Vaughn did not return a request for comment in time of this report.

"The door was totally un-barricaded. There was no effort to make it anything other than accessible," Krist said.

Tobey and Kristen are thankful for his recovery saying they are well aware it could have ended much worse.