Aug 25, 2008 6:59 pm US/Eastern
Family Sues Corona After Exploding Beer Blinds Boy
Shards Of Glass Slice Through Child's Retina, Cornea
$15 Million Lawsuit Filed
EAST NORTHPORT, N.Y. (CBS) ―
-
-
A Long Island, N.Y. boy was blinded in one of his eye after a bottle of Corona suddenly exploded, sending shards of glass through his eye.
CBS
A Long Island family is suing a major beer brewer, claiming one of their bottles exploded, partially blinding a 2-year-old boy. The family tells CBS station WCBS-TV in New York City the bottle had a defect that should have been caught.
Two-and-a-half year old Nicholas Gallelli was blinded in his left eye in what was either a freak accident or negligence. His parents say, a longneck glass bottle of Corona beer, cap still on, suddenly exploded, propelling glass shards with such force that they sliced through the toddler's cornea and retina.
"We heard a pop, almost like a firecracker went off, and then he started screaming and blood was coming down," said Linda Gallelli, Nicholas' mother.
Nicholas, the Gallelli's only child, was visiting relatives in East Northport last year for a July 4 party. His parents, worried about the swimming pool, kept him at their side, up on the deck, next to a cooler filled with ice, beer and soda. They say all at once there was an earsplitting shattering sound:
"Like a gunshot," one of Nicholas' young cousins tells WCBS-TV.
"It was so scary. It just happened in split second," says another.
An aunt who is a nurse and an uncle who is an emergency medical technician responded immediately.
"My sister said a gelatinous material came out of his eye which we believe now is the lens of his eye," Linda said.
An ambulance rushed Nicholas to the hospital where he underwent five hours of surgery. The Gallellis, who hired a lawyer to pursue the case, saved the evidence, they say, which includes a soda can punctured by the glass.
"When you take a bottle and put it on ice it's not supposed to explode," says Robert Danzi, the Gallellis' attorney.
Danzi's investigator, he says, determined the beer glass, which is bottled in Mexico and designed for thermal changes, was not of uniform thickness. Now suing for $15 million, the family says the beer was never put through any extreme changes in temperature.
They also say they waited a year to sue because they hoped their son would regain his vision.
"My son is blind in one eye and they should be accountable," Linda says.
(© MMX, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)
Click to enlarge
Stumble It!
Comments