coffee creamer choker - CT

[greg1]

Irecently was drinking coffee at work when a shard of plestic from tyhe creamer container went into my mouth and I swallowed it . It got lodged in my chest and had to undergo an endoscopy to remove it . It was very painful and scary . The creamer container is designed to push this plastic tab down to open it . More times than not , the tab breaks right off into the product that is meant to be ingested . It is a very dangerous design that should be changed before someone chokes to death

 

[justalayman]

sorry to hear of your ordeal and I tend to agree with you. Did you have a question?

 

[cyjeff]

sorry to hear of your ordeal and I tend to agree with you. Did you have a question?

Oh you.

You are being coy.

You know that Greg is asking how many millions he can get out of the nice folks that made the creamer container.

So tell him...

 

[justalayman]

I like it when they actually ask. Kind of "my thing". Makes me all warm and fuzzy inside. Doc said I had nothing to worry about with a fuzzy inside although I tend to wonder still.

 

[cyjeff]

I like it when they actually ask. Kind of "my thing". Makes me all warm and fuzzy inside. Doc said I had nothing to worry about with a fuzzy inside although I tend to wonder still.

do you think he realized that it was a) his job to look into the coffee cup he was drinking from; b) his responsibility, as "cook" of the cup of coffee to make sure that the ingredients were healthy; and c) probably a coworker (or, gasp, himself) that can't figure out the top of a creamer container that millions of other people do without risk every day?

nah... let's just sue.

I say go for 5 million and settle for 2.

 

[justalayman]

that was my next question:

does the plastic piece float in coffee?

If it does, any liability the manufacturer may have had is countered by the responsibility of the consumer to see something floating in the coffee.

If the plastic doesn't float (not sure what kind of plastic wouldn't float in coffee but...) I could actually see a defective engineering case. If it does not float, I could see a claim for the med bills and possibly some pain and suffering but a very limited amount.

Now if he died from it; WOW, his wife would have it made.

greg, if the thing doesn't float, contact an attorney. I would think you would get your bills and some P&S. Don't forget to subtract the attorneys money off the top because with such a limited award, chances are they are not going to take this on contingency.

 

[Hot Topic]

Being plastic, the tab would float to the top of the coffee. Although I don't drink it, I can imagine pouring the creamer into the coffee, then stirring it to blend the two. Even if you put the creamer in first, you'd still have to look at the coffee, and you'd see the floating tab.

Even if the tab broke off and landed in the cream, what are the chances of it coming out of the hole in the creamer and into the coffee?

OP is full of "bug dust," as we say in our family.

 

[tholt4]

Hot Topic

Even if the tab broke off and landed in the cream, what are the chances of it coming out of the hole in the creamer and into the coffee?

This very similar thing happened to an employee at my work place about 5 years ago. She poured a lot of powdered creamer into her coffee and the broken off tab unknown to her came out of the container into her coffee. She drank the coffee getting the tab stuck in her throat cutting off breathing. Another employee performed the Heimlich on her until she could breathe. On the way to the hospital, she coughed and dislodged the tab. This tab was sort of triangular shaped, and I don't know if her stirring the coffee beforehand would have had the tab swirling below the surface of the coffee.

 

[lya]

You know, the instructions on the container explain the different openings. The large one, where the tab can come back out, is for removing the creamer with a spoon. The smaller one, where the opening isn't large enough for the tab to come back out, is for pouring the creamer into the cup.

 

[TheGeekess]

Aren't those tabs are designed to stay attached to one edge of the hole? It takes a bit of doing just to knock one of those things open, much less break off the tab.

 

[lya]

Aren't those tabs are designed to stay attached to one edge of the hole? It takes a bit of doing just to knock one of those things open, much less break off the tab.

They are; but, they do break off, especially when people actually use a spoon and the spoon gets caught on the tab and they wrestle the spoon out!

 

[TheGeekess]

They are; but, they do break off, especially when people actually use a spoon and the spoon gets caught on the tab and they wrestle the spoon out!

I tend to use a butter knife. They don't get caught.