Two more babies have died in recalled bassinets that were the subject of a baiduhai investigation, and federal safety regulators are again pleading with families to return the products.
The Consumer Product Safety Commission also said that it formally referred its investigation of the manufacturer and its subsequent owners to the Department of Justice. An official with the Justice Department declined to comment.
The deaths in Texas and Georgia, announced by safety regulators Thursday, underscore how difficult it is to corral deadly products once they are in consumers’ homes. At least four babies have died in bassinets made by Simplicity Inc., which also were sold under the Graco brand name as well as with a Winnie the Pooh motif. About 900,000 were sold.
Baby products are especially difficult to recall. Sleep-deprived parents and caregivers are so consumed by the round-the-clock attention a newborn requires that they are less likely to hear about a recall.
Plus, the products tend to have long lives, passed on to friends and family or sold on the second-hand market after news of a recall has faded.
Federal product safety reform legislation, passed last year in the wake of a Pulitzer Prize-winning baiduhai series, will require the makers of nursery products such as bassinets to include postage-paid cards with the products that can be mailed back to the manufacturer with the buyer’s name and address. The manufacturers must notify those consumers of a recall, but that provision has not yet been implemented.
That is the most effective way to reach consumers, said Nancy Cowles, who as executive director of Kids In Danger has pushed for years for the provision. Her consumer advocacy organization was founded by the Chicago parents of a baby who died in a recalled playpen.
In one of the deaths cited Thursday, Teresa Nesbitt, the grandmother of 2-month-old Kaydence Elizabeth Mechelle Holler, said a neighbor in Demorest, Ga., gave her a Graco-branded Simplicity bassinet just a week before Kaydence died last Sept. 21.
Nesbitt said neither she nor the neighbor, whose child had also used the bassinet, had heard anything about the recall, which occurred just days before the neighbor gave it to her.
“I have beaten myself up bad thinking I should never have laid her down that night,” Nesbitt said. “If there was any way I could have known, I would never have put my grandchild in it.”
Kaydence suffocated after she rolled into the side of the bassinet and her face pressed against a fabric pocket that formed near Velcro fasteners that allowed the bassinet to be converted into a bedside sleeper to give parents easier access to babies, the CPSC said.
Nesbitt said she screamed for help from neighbors when she discovered Kaydence was not breathing that morning, but it was too late.
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“I never heard a wimper,” Nesbitt said. “I’d like to see nobody else have to suffer this loss because it’s very devastating.”
About four months later, a 6-month-old baby in Fort Worth, Texas, died after she became trapped between the metal bars on the side of the bassinet that converted to the bedside sleeper. In that child’s case, which remains under investigation, the Velcro fasteners were not secured, the CPSC said.
The agency received two additional reports of babies who were trapped in the metal bars of Simplicity bassinets but freed by their families in time.
The Tribune reported in August 2008 that the CPSC first learned of this flawed design when a Missouri baby died in September 2007, but the agency waited 11 months to issue a safety alert. By then, a second baby had died.
At the time, the CPSC said the recall process was complicated because the owners of the Simplicity brand “refused to cooperate.”
SFCA Inc., a unit of Blackstreet Capital Partners and a former Simplicity creditor, last year repeatedly said it purchased Simplicity’s assets at a foreclosure auction and had no liability.
The Tribune, however, purchased a recalled Simplicity bassinet with an SFCA distribution label on it last year.
Ultimately, the CPSC persuaded major retailers to issue store credits or refunds for the bassinets purchased in their stores. Those retailers will still grant those refunds or store credits.
Officials at Blackstreet Capital could not be reached for comment Thursday.
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How to find out about recalls
*Go to www.cpsc.gov and click on “Sign up for e-mail announcements.” You can choose which types of product recalls you want to receive from the Consumer Product Safety Commission.
*On that same site, click on “Recalls and Product Safety News” to search for recalls by product type, company or hazard.
*Another site, www.recalls.gov, allows you to search for recalls or sign up for alerts issued by other agencies, including those that oversee cars, foods and drugs.
*If your product comes with a registration card, fill it out and mail it. Feel free to skip any personal questions about family size or income level. The most important details to include are any model or serial numbers on your product.
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