Kenny was not allowed to play with the toys because his parents knew they posed a potential choking hazard. What the parents did not realize was that toys plastic parts could break open, spilling small, powerful magnets onto the carpet, where they would remain out of the sight of an adult or older child, but easily found and swallowed by a curious toddler.
Kenny fell ill not long after ingesting the magnets. At first, his parents thought he had caught the stomach bug his father, Kenneth Sr., had suffered from the week before. Unable to hold down solid food, Kenny rested in a beanbag chair next to the dining room table while his family ate Thanksgiving dinner. What the Sweets didn’t know was that nine tiny magnets had attached together in Kenny’s intestines and were slowly cutting off the blood supply to parts of his bowels, causing the tissue to die and allowing gangrene to set in. He died that night.
Following the death of their son, the Sweets filed a complaint with the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC), the federal agency responsible for regulating consumer products. The toy’s manufacturer, Mega Bloks said it had “no record or knowledge of a similar occurrence involving this toy.” However, both the CPSC and the corporation had received repeated complaints that the magnets were coming loose, including at least two life-threatening incidents.
sources: Sources: Patricia Callaghan, “Toy Magnets Kill Young Boy,” Chicago Tribune, May 5, 2007; Patricia Callaghan, “Inside the Botched Recall of a Dangerous Toy,” Chicago Tribune, May 7, 2007; Patricia Callaghan, “Finger-Pointing Furious in Deal Gone Sour,” Chicago Tribune, May 7, 2007; Tom Paulson, “Parents Are Warned About the Toy Magnetix,” Seattle Post-Intelligencer, March 17, 2006; Eric Wilkinson, “Federal Government Recalls Toy in Wake of Local Death,” King 5 News, March 31, 2006; Press Release: Child’s Death Prompts Replacement Program of Magnetic Building Sets, U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission, March 31, 2006; Press Release: Magnetix Magnetic Building Set Recall Expanded, U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission, April 19, 2007; Sweet et al v. Rose Art Industries Inc et al, 2:06-cv-00527.
Months went by without action from the corporation or the CPSC, while 3.8 million Magnetix toys sat on store shelves. By this point the CPSC had received at least 1,500 reports of magnets coming loose. The toys were eventually recalled, but not before 34 children were injured, at least 15 of whom were hurt after Kenny’s death. Incredibly, although the CPSC negotiated a voluntary recall, the corporation insisted the terms of the agreement allow them to continue to sell the toys that were already on store shelves.
The Sweets turned to the civil justice system seeking not only restitution for the loss of their child but also a permanent injuction to keep Mega Bloks from further manufacture or distribution of the deadly toys. Although the corporation denied knowledge of other injuries caused by the toys, litigation revealed they had indeed known of the life-threatening dangers.
Mega Bloks has since promised to increase factory inspections and make the toys safer. The CPSC, in turn, responded to Kenny’s death by implementing a new safety standard test that toys with small magnets must pass before they can be placed on store shelves.