[Cyberduck-trac] [Cyberduck] #9926: Lawsuit: Sword blade flew from handle, pierced teen's head

[Cyberduck]

#9926: Lawsuit: Sword blade flew from handle, pierced teen's head
-------------------------+-------------------------------------------------
    Reporter:            |      Owner:
  HildegardCarriga       |
        Type:            |     Status:  new
  enhancement            |
    Priority:  high      |  Milestone:  7.0
   Component:  website   |    Version:  2.6.1
    Severity:  critical  |   Keywords:  Samurai Sword Samurai Sword Samurai
                         |  Sword
Architecture:            |   Platform:
-------------------------+-------------------------------------------------
 ATLANTA (AP) - The parents of a Kentucky teenager say the steel blade of a
 samurai sword broke off its handle and flew in the air as he played with
 friends, piercing the boy's forehead and leaving him in a coma for weeks.

 In a federal lawsuit filed Wednesday in Atlanta, Michael and Nicole
 Ballinger say their son Tristan, then 15, and his friends were taking
 turns last November throwing a plastic water bottle in the air and
 swinging the sword at it outside their home in La Grange, Kentucky.

 During one swing of the sword, its 27-inch blade broke off and flew as far
 as 20 feet before it became impaled in the head of the teenager, according
 to the lawsuit.

 The defendant, Top Swords LLC of Dallas, Georgia, did not respond
 Wednesday to a request for comment through its website. The court records
 do not include any attorney for the company who could be reached
 Wednesday.

 Cade Parian, a Georgia attorney representing the family, said Wednesday
 that the lawsuit had just been filed and the company had not yet been
 served with the paperwork.

 Tristan was in a coma for about six weeks, his parents said in the
 complaint.

 Once the teen emerged from the coma, he was taken to Frazier Rehab
 Institute in nearby Louisville, said Mat Slechter, a Louisville attorney
 representing the family. Late last month, the boy returned to the hospital
 to have the top of his skull replaced after it had been removed during an
 earlier surgery, he said.

 The boy is now in a wheelchair and living at home, and Slechter said, "He
 is able to speak some... he is not able to converse normally."

 Through it all, there's been a tremendous outpouring of support from the
 community and from students at
 [http://www.ajaxtime.com/?s=Tristan%27s%20school Tristan's school] -
 Oldham County High School - and other schools nearby, according to
 Slechter.

 "They've held prayer circles that just encircled the basketball court," he
 said. "When I went to a basketball game at Oldham County High School there
 was a giant banner in the hallway that said 'We love you Tristan.' And
 every student had signed it."

 In the lawsuit, the parents say the sword was defective and should not
 have been sold online by the company, which sells a variety of swords,
 daggers, machetes, scimitars and other weapons through its website.

 "The blade was secured not by bolts or rivets running through the handle
 and the blade but by what appears to be rubber cement," the lawsuit
 states.

 The sword also was shipped with
 [http://tinyurl.com/ed369ba49aafcbe1549a2e6779cbc75d reddit] no owner's
 manual, warnings or notices about whether it was intended for decorative
 purposes, horseplay, simulated sword fighting or other uses, the lawsuit
 states.

--
Ticket URL: <https://trac.cyberduck.io/ticket/9926>
Cyberduck <https://cyberduck.io>
Libre FTP, SFTP, WebDAV, S3 & OpenStack Swift browser for Mac and Windows