A death in an assisted living community contributed to the voluntary recall of 113,000 adult portable bed handles by Bed Handles Inc. of Blue Spring, MO. The company and the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission have reannounced the recall, initially made in May 2014, because the response rate to the original recall has been less than 1%.
The handles, when attached to an adult’s bed without the use of safety retention straps, can shift out of place, creating a gap between the bed handle and the side of the mattress. “This [gap] poses a serious risk of entrapment, strangulation and death,” according to the new announcement.
Three women died after becoming trapped between their mattresses and the bed rails, according to the commission. One was an older adult living in an Edina, MN, assisted living community; another was a 41-year-old disabled woman who lived in a Renton, WA, adult family home; and the third was an 81-year-old woman living in a Vancouver, WA, managed care facility. No additional deaths of injuries have been reported.
The recalled bed handles were sold between 1994 through 2007 at medical equipment stores, drug stores and home health stores, as well as in catalogs, under the model names Original Bedside Assistant (BA10W); Travel Handles (BA11W), sold as a set of two bed handles; and Adjustable Bedside Assistant (AJ1).
Use of the bed rails should be stopped immediately, according to the notice. Bed Handles will provide free safety retention straps to secure the bed rail to the bed frame, new assembly and installation instructions for models BA10W, BA11W and AJ1 and a warning label to attach to the bed handles.
