Warning to Parents of Small Children: McDonald’s Happy Meals and Mighty Kids Meals “Hello Kitty Birthday Lollipop” Whistles Have Been Recalled for Dangerous Choking and Aspiration Hazards

Parents across the country take their children to McDonald’s for meals, birthday celebrations, and the entertainment of McDonald’s Playlands. Happy Meals and Mighty Kids Meals are favorite choices of young children, in part because they contain toys as well as food. Toys distributed at restaurants are as susceptible to defect as any others, however, and these defects can cause injury or death to children who play with them. The Hello Kitty Birthday Lollipop Whistles included in McDonald’s kids’ meals between October and November 2014 are a prime example and have been recalled for serious dangers posed to young children by the whistles’ small parts.

On November 10, 2014, the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) announced the U.S. recall of approximately 2.3 million “Hello Kitty Birthday Lollipop” Whistles that were distributed across the nation, from October 2014 through the first week of November 2014, in McDonald’s Happy Meals and Mighty Kids Meals. Another approximately 200,000 of the whistles were recalled in Canada. The recalled whistles are red in color and came in a plastic “Hello Kitty” figurine holding a pink heart-shaped lollipop. The whistles were meant to be removed from the figurine and used to make sounds by inhaling or exhaling through the whistle mouthpiece. The recall was issued after reports that the parts inside the whistles can detach from the whistles and be choked on or aspirated (breathed in) by young children. Consumers are directed to immediately take the whistles away from their children and to return them to McDonald’s for a replacement toy and a free yogurt tube or bag of apple slices.

Note: If your child has breathed in or choked on a part of one of these whistles, do not return the whistle to McDonald’s. Keep the whistle away from your child and preserve it in its present condition so that a personal injury attorney can address the issues of product preservation and testing.

childrens choking hazard mcdonaldsDefective toys and children’s products such as the whistles recalled by McDonald’s can cause serious personal injury or death to a child. If your child has been injured or has died as a result of the use of or exposure to a defective toy or other children’s product, you may be entitled to compensation from the responsible parties through legal action. Child injury attorney Jeffrey Killino has extensive experience with a wide variety of child injury cases, including those arising out of injuries and deaths caused by defective toys and children’s products. Contact attorney Killino and his nationally recognized team of child injury attorneys and paralegals for more information about your legal rights and options.

Holding Those Responsible for Children’s Defective Toy and Children’s Product Injuries and Deaths Accountable through Legal Action

Product liability law provides for the recovery of damages resulting from personal injuries and deaths found to have been caused by defective products, including toys and other products intended for use by children. Products may be found defective under product liability law when they contain manufacturing, design, or warning defects. Toys and other children’s products may be found to be defective in any of these three ways for a great variety of reasons.

According to a study conducted by the CPSC, choking on toys and other children’s products is the leading cause of death among small children. Small parts that can be choked on or breathed in by small children are often found to render toys and children’s products defective.

Products may be found defective if designed or manufactured with small parts that easily come off a product and can be swallowed, choked on, or aspirated by children. A product may also be found defective if the product is, in itself, a small part and the product was either marketed to children too young to safely use it or was sold without adequate warnings to keep the product away from children under a certain age (often, the age of three). In some cases, products intended for adult use but that are likely to be handled by children may be found defective as a result of the failure to warn of the choking hazard posed by the products to children who gain access to them.

When a toy or other children’s product is found to be defective in these or other ways (such as due to excessive levels of lead, strangulation hazards, falling hazards, or suffocation hazards), the designer, manufacturer, assembler, suppliers, and distributors of the product (including a wholesaler and retailer) may be found liable for the injury or death of a child that is found to have been caused by the product’s defect. Under the Restatement (Second) of Torts, section 402 A, which currently governs product liability actions in most state courts, these defendants may be held strictly liable for injuries and deaths caused by design, manufacturing, or warning defects. This means that the designers and manufacturers as well as others in the line of distribution from the manufacturer to the consumer may be found legally responsible for injuries and deaths caused by such defects even if none of the defendants had knowledge of the defect or was negligent in causing it or allowing the defective product to be released to consumers.

Obtain Expert Assistance from Child Injury Attorney Jeffrey Killino

Child injury attorney Jeffrey Killino is known nationwide for his aggressive pursuit of justice on behalf of children who have been injured or killed by defective toys and children’s products. If your child has been injured or killed as a result of a defective toy or children’s product, our dedicated and compassionate team of child accident, defective products, and wrongful death lawyers can help you obtain the compensation to which you are entitled from all those responsible for your child’s injury or death.