THE family of a six-year-old girl has filed a wrongful death lawsuit after she accidentally injured herself while playing with a game at the vacation rental she was staying at with her family.

Lucy Morgan, a six-year-old from Stockholm, New Jersey, was playing with her brother in Limerick, Maine when she sustained a deadly injury from a badminton racquet.

Lucy Morgan was on vacation with her family in Maine when she suffered a fatal injury from a badminton racquet

Lucy was airlifted to the hospital on June 1, 2024 and died on June 5, 2024 after being declared brain dead

The incident occurred on June 1, 2024, and her family has now filed a wrongful death lawsuit against Franklin Sports Inc., the maker of the racquet.

“Investigators learned that the aluminum shaft of a badminton racquet had become dislodged from the wooden handle, causing the shaft to strike the girl in the head, piercing through her skull,” the Maine State Police said in 2024.

Lucy’s family detailed the “catastrophic injury” in a blog, revealing the child was still breathing but unresponsive after the incident.

“Upon arrival she went right to the operating room where they removed part of her skull to relieve pressure and deal with her injury,” said Lucy’s father Jesse Morgan, a pastor at Green Pond Bible Chapel in Rockaway, New Jersey.

“She coded, they got her back, and they completed the surgery.”

While she was in the pediatric ICU, Lucy’s family was told there was a “very slim chance she recovers.”

After spending days in the hospital with little change in Lucy’s prognosis, she was declared brain dead in the middle of the night on June 5, 2024.

The Morgan family filed a wrongful death lawsuit against the badminton racquet maker seeking damages, including funeral expenses, emotional distress and other available damages.

The family was spending their last day of vacation at a lake house in Maine on June 1, 2024 where Lucy’s older siblings were playing badminton in the front yard, according to the complaint viewed by CBS affiliate WGME.

Lucy and her younger brother were watching nearby.

The badminton set was sold and manufactured by Franklin Sports, and was at the rental cottage where the family had been staying, the lawsuit noted.

The lawsuit alleged that when Lucy’s brother swung the racquet, hitting a badminton birdie, the head and metal stem separated from the handle.

The family has since filed a wrongful death lawsuit, alleging Lucy’s siblings witnesses the incident

The Morgan family is seeking damages, including for funeral expenses and emotional distress

Parts of the racquet then went flying through the air, and the exposed metal stem struck Lucy in the temple, piercing her skull.

Her three siblings watched the incident in horror and her parents heard her screams, rushing to her aid after she was impaled, the lawsuit said.

Lucy was airlifted to Maine Medical Center in Portland following the incident.

The family alleged the racquet was unreasonably dangerous and defective because the handle and stem had not been adequately secured.

The adhesive connecting the handle and stem was allegedly defective, and the racquet did not have a secondary restraint that would prevent the metal part from becoming a projectile.

The wrongful death suit further alleges that Franklin Sports failed to warn consumers about the risks of a metal stem separating during ordinary use.

“This case represents a parent’s worst nightmare,” the family’s attorney Charles Hehmeyer with Berman & Simmons in Maine told ABC affiliate WMTW.

“We are committed to obtaining justice for Lucy by holding Franklin Sports accountable.

“We want to ensure these racquets are manufactured in a way where this type of tragedy never occurs again.”

Hehmeyer said there was another case involving a Franklin Sports racquet where a child was injured.

The case reportedly involved a child in New York who lost an eye after the racquet separated.

“The company knew that but chose not to correct this with something as simple as a pin in the handle, which would cost pennies,” Hehmeyer told WMTW.

The U.S. Sun has reached out to Franklin Sports and Berman & Simmons for comment.

Source: https://www.the-sun.com/news/16861214/lucy-morgan-badminton-death-accident/