Texas State University graduate student Emma Verrill has filed a lawsuit against General Motors for third-degree burns. She blames her friend’s 2008 Chevrolet Suburban for the injury, citing that the heated seats must have been defective since they reached “dangerously high temperatures that would burn human flesh.”
You’re probably asking yourself, “why would anybody continue to sit in a seat if it was that hot?” And this is where things get complicated. Verrill is in a wheelchair and doesn’t have feeling from the waist down. It was a warm day in late June 2012 and Verrill says she didn’t know that the seat heater was on. The next morning she discovered a blister on her buttocks that was the size of her palm.
Following the incident, Verrill underwent a skin graft surgery which removed skin from her left thigh to cover the affected area. She stayed with her parents who cared for her for nearly three months while she was bedridden. Verrill is now sueing General Motors for an unspecified amount of money which would cover past and future medical expenses, other costs and “noneconomic damages in an amount to be determined at trial.” Despite GM’s millions of recent safety recalls, none were related to seat heaters in the Suburban line.
Verrill’s lawsuit states that GM failed to adequately test the rear seat heaters. In GM’s nine-page court-filed response, the automaker denies the seat heater was defective or dangerous, and denies causing Verrill’s injury. A trial date has been set for May 4, 2015.
Comments
I call bull on this being done by the seat heaters.
I’m actually going to propose a hypothesis here, it was done with a hot plate and then they claimed it was done by the seat heaters so that they could sue GM and get money, in fact I bet they’re hoping for an out of court settlement and if this does actually go to trial, they’ll drop the case.
Her condition made this entirely possible. Sad to say this. Electric blankets, heating pads, anything like that is risky for her and other people with nerve or circulation problems. She should not use the heated seats, ever.
Not familiar with the equipment, but there should be a warning light to say it is on. Sometimes the controls in vehicles are way too sophisticated and easy to drive around not knowing something is turned on or off.
Heated seats always seemed really lame to me. People are becoming entirely too soft and pampered.
It is possible as my father was paralyzed and burned by a heating pad when he was first paralyzed.
But he did not blame anyone else. In this case who ever is at fault is the person who turned the seat on.
As for lame seats you must not live where it is cold as in the winter they bring a great level of comfort to anyone in -25 below weather if you have leather seats.
By the way isn’t blistering only second degree and third degree is when the skin is charred? That is how I always
understood it.
I hate to say this but this is not GM’s fault like so many other cases that will get settled out of court just because it is cheaper to settle than win and the lawyers know it. The lawyers make a great living off of cases like this.
She’s paralyzed. This was likely caused by poor circulation, not heat.
Like a few others here, I can see the victims misfortune. Usually when a heated seat or anything of similarity is on, there’s an indicator. I’m sure the suburban had an indicator that it was on. It’s interesting timing for a lawsuit like this as well, given GM’s legal troubles already. Not every case is a case, and not every case will make it that far. From my understanding of the article, the seat did as designed. GM or not, I don’t see how this would have been the fault of any manufacturer. Regardless I’m sure GM will make sure that she at least gets something.
We have the 2007 Trailblazer with heated leather seats. Yes there is a very bright light in the switch which she might have seen IF she could feel the heat. I doubt that even though she couldn’t feel it, it would have burned her. They don’t get that hot even in the summer when you accidently bump the switch and turn them on!!