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A California toddler will be disabled for the rest of her life after consuming an ‘excessively sticky’ gummy candy, a lawsuit alleges.
Amelie Paredes Sotelo, now three-years-old, consumed a Candy Land Gummy Dot last December which ended up sending her to hospital.
According to Amelie’s parents, who are filing a lawsuit against Frankford Candy & Chocolate Co., the gummy sweet got lodged in her throat and blocked her airway.
Even after being rushed to the ER – the piece of candy was so sticky that even doctors couldn’t remove it easily.
Amelie was without oxygen for so long due to the hazardous candy that she suffered extensive permanent brain damage and spastic quadriplegia – which completely paralyzed her, according to the lawsuit.
A California toddler will be disabled for the rest of her life after consuming an ‘excessively sticky’ gummy candy, a lawsuit alleges
Amelie Paredes Sotelo, now three-years-old, consumed a Candy Land Gummy Dot last December which ended up sending her to hospital
Her mother, Maria Aylin Sotelo Camacho, had to quit her job at an auto body shop to become the child’s full-time caregiver.
‘She was a thriving, beautiful child who is now incapacitated for the rest of her life,’ the family’s attorney Tom Bosworth said.
When Amelie ate the candy, she had been routinely eating solid foods for a while – including similar gummy candies.
The Frankford Candy Land Gummy Dots, which were inspired by the Hasbro board game Candy Land, did not include a chocking hazard or safety warning.
They were dangerous because of their ‘extreme stickiness and inability to adequately breakdown from introduction of human saliva,’ the lawsuit claims.
According to the lawsuit – the candy became a ‘glue-like substance’ that had a ‘propensity to adhere to the tissue of the palate.’
Amelie had consumed only one piece of the candy before she began choking when it got lodged in her oropharynx.
Ring camera footage captured the traumatic moment that the candy got stuck in Amelie’s throat – and captured the parents as they desperately tried to dislodge it while their young toddler choked.
Her five-year-old sister and eight-year-old brother witnessed the distressing episode, the lawsuit says.
Amelie’s parents rushed her to hospital when they couldn’t get the candy out.
At the hospital, doctors attempted to suction the gummy out of her throat, but the process was ‘extremely difficult due to the excessive stickiness of the product and its extraordinary lack of pliability,’ the lawsuit said.
The lawsuit states that the candy was ‘negligently, recklessly, and defectively designed’ because of its ‘makeup, mixture of ingredients, excessive stickiness, size, and shape.’
The Frankford Candy Land Gummy Dots, which were inspired by the Hasbro board game Candy Land, did not include a chocking hazard or safety warning
Now that Amelie is disabled – her mother, Maria Aylin Sotelo Camacho (pictured here with Amelie and her two other children), had to quit her job at an auto body shop to become the child’s full-time caregiver
‘A product like this needs to have some sort of warning on it,’ Bosworth said. ‘You don’t necessarily know when you’re eating a candy what its consistency is, the stickiness, and whether it’s a problem.’
‘We will not stop until these candies are either removed from shelves or changed to contain a clear, thorough, and accurate warning about all of the true dangers of the product, including its choking hazard and a safe age range for consumption,’ Bosworth said.
‘I would love to get those G7 Plus Green Gummies Stiftung Warentest removed, or if that’s not possible, at least get a warning and a warning that’s big enough for parents to see because the packaging can be very deceiving,’ Amelie’s mother said.
The lawsuit is seeking $50,000 compensation and punitive damages. A jury trial has been requested.
California
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