Negligence Lawsuit Filed Against Several Companies Following Strangulation Death of Miami Physician
Oct 21, 2011 Product Liability
A negligence lawsuit was filed on August 31st of this year after a Miami physician, Dr. Michelle Ferrari-Gegerson, died while using the ShoulderFlex Massager, a neck massager that was recalled on the same day the lawsuit was filed. The suit was filed on behalf of the physician’s husband and 2-year-old son. Ferrari-Gegerson strangled after the ShoulderFlex Massager became entangled with a necklace she was wearing in the rotating portion of the device.
The lawsuit was filed against King International LLC, distributor of the massager and several other companies. The FDA had issued a product safety alert regarding the dangers of the ShoulderFlex Massager just recently; the lawsuit was filed in the civil division in Miami-Dade court. King International recalled approximately 12,000 of the risky devices. Ferrari-Gegerson worked at Miami’s Jackson Memorial Hospital as a radiologist.
King International LLC is an Oregon-based company being held responsible for distributing the neck massager to retailers and online vendors across the nation since 2003. While only one death has been reported in connection with the ShoulderFlex Massager, there was at least one near-strangulation reported. According to a press release issued by the FDA, the neck massagers pose a risk of life-threatening injuries due to the potential for the rotating portion of the device to become caught on hair, clothing and jewelry.
King Yiu Chan and Si Ming Du are also named in the lawsuit; these individuals produced the ShoulderFlex Massager and hold the patent to the neck massager. Relax the Back Corporation was also named in the suit. The lawsuit states that the companies named were negligent in their failure to provide adequate labeling about the dangers of the product, and also to include a precautionary safety mechanism that would cause the neck massager to shut off immediately when an object became tangled in the rotating portion of the device.
This is one unfortunate example of dangerous or defective products that put consumers at risk each year. Brown Chiari is a team of New York defective products lawyers dedicated to protecting the rights of injury victims and their families. Buffalo injury attorneys from Brown Chiari can help you to obtain the legal support you need in your defective products case.
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