A Florida woman's death apparently was caused when an electric neck massager became ensnared on her necklace and strangled her, sheriff's investigators said on Wednesday.
The woman, 37-year-old physician Michelle Ferrari-Gegerson, had been wrapping gifts on Christmas Eve and used the massager to relieve neck pain, Broward County Sheriff's investigators said.
Her husband found her lying unconscious on the bedroom floor in their home in the Fort Lauderdale suburb of Parkland and called paramedics, who pronounced her dead.
Paramedics found the neck massager on the floor next to the woman. Investigators believe the massager got tangled on her necklace and tightened it around her neck, causing her to lose consciousness and stop breathing.
Her death is believed to be accidental, but homicide investigators are withholding details about the massaging device until the investigation is complete, a sheriff's spokesman said.
More than 1,600 people were hurt in 2009 while using massage devices or vibrators, which are combined in one category, according to the Consumer Product Safety Commission. That was down from more than 1,950 estimated injuries in 2008. A review of online records showed most of those injuries involved mishaps with sex toys.
But the Miami Herald reported Thursday that the Matoba Electric Manufacturing Co. of Saitama, Japan, recalled an electric foot massager after three reported cases in that country in which women accidentally strangled themselves while improperly using the machine as a neck massager.
In all three cases, the women had removed a cloth covering from the Arubi Shape-Up roller, allowing the collars of their shirts to get caught in the machine’s rollers, the newspaper said.
