A Brooklyn toddler’s finger was sheared off by a dangerously designed hinge joint on a Maclaren stroller more than five years before the British baby-supply giant issued a massive recall, according to court papers.
Shannon Windram, who was just 2½ at the time, was with her mom, Elizabeth, at the Fleet Bank on Fifth Avenue at 69th Street when the accident — allegedly caused by a Maclaren Quest stroller — occurred.
“It just felt helpless, seeing our baby there with a portion of her finger hanging by a thread of skin and hoping for a miracle,” said dad Thomas, 44, who rushed from his MTA bus route to Lutheran Hospital to be by his daughter’s side after the March 2004 tragedy.
“It just tore a deep hole in our hearts that we haven’t been able to heal to this day.”
He said doctors reattached the finger, which was severed near the first knuckle, but warned the Sunset Park couple that it was not likely to take. A few weeks later, the tip blackened, and Shannon returned to the hospital to have the top of the finger amputated.
“I wouldn’t want any other children to go through this situation,” said Windram. “It doesn’t just affect the child. It affects the parents. You never heal from it.”
The suit, filed earlier this month in Brooklyn Supreme Court, is the first in the city since Maclaren issued a million-stroller recall in November.
The company said it issued the voluntary recall after receiving reports of 12 children losing fingers. The Windrams’ lawyer, Harry Burstein, said Shannon’s accident was not one of those 12.
“Parents should be able to rely on a product that is designed for use by young children. When they bought this, they had a right . . . to assume it would be safe,” said Burstein.
The company declined to clarify whether it was aware of the incident at the time of the recall.
“We cannot comment on specific matters as we treat these with the utmost privacy,” said company spokeswoman Charlotte Addison.
As for Windram, he said after the trauma of watching his daughter lose her finger, there’s been no stroller at all in his house.
“I carried her instead,” he said. “Just my arms. It’s a paranoia I have even today, with my 4-year-old. I carry him everywhere.”