IKEA Repeats Recall After Eighth Child Killed by Falling Dresser

ByElizabeth Licata

When you have kids, furniture needs to be anchored to the wall. Now Ikea is repeating a recall announcement after an eighth child was killed by an Ikea Malm dresser.

According to USA Today, two-year-old Jozef Dudek of Buena Park, California, died in May. He had been taking a nap in his room, and his father found him under the Malm dresser when he went to check on him later. The dresser had not been mounted to the wall. He’s the eighth child under the age of three to have been killed under an Ikea dresser. The first death occurred in 1989, and the other seven happened after 2002.

This recall was first announced two years ago.

This is the same recall Mommyish wrote about back in 2015, which was expanded in 2016, after two toddlers were killed in 2014 by falling Ikea dressers. That recall involved sending free wall anchors to anybody who requested them. Ikea CEO Lars Petersson says over a million people either returned their dressers for a refund or asked for the wall-mounting kits after that recall went out. Since then, the dressers ship with wall anchors, and Ikea will still send replacement wall anchors if you threw yours away for some reason.

Ikea says the current crop of dressers come with instructions warning that they must be anchored to walls. Once they’re anchored, they’re safe and meet U.S. safety standards, the company says.

Lawyers for the Dudeks say the recall was “poorly publicized” and has been “ineffective in getting these defective and unstable dressers out of children’s bedrooms.” They say the family was unaware the dresser had been recalled, and they plan to sue.

All dressers must be secured to walls.

A different Ikea dresser featured in a viral video of a two-year-old saving his twin brother after a Hemnes dresser fell on him. That story could have ended in tragedy, too. The fact that it didn’t was sheer luck. A lot of parents wouldn’t have thought a two-year-old could tip over a dresser like that, but parents aren’t as creative as children. In that video, the dresser tipped over after the toddler put it off balance by opening the top drawers, then climbing on them. Furniture has to be secured to a wall.

“The most important part about this notice that went out is appealing to the consumer,” Acting CPSC chair Ann Marie Buerkle told BuzzFeed News. “If they have children in their home, and if they’re going to have grandchildren in their home, we hope they’ll take advantage of this recall and avoid any injuries or deaths in the future.”

Ikea is still sending free wall-mounting kits to anyone who wants one. Ikea will even send a crew to install the wall mounts for you. Customers can also get rid of the furniture if they don’t want it. Ikea is offering full refunds, and customers can take them to the store and drop them off. Ikea will even send someone to pick up the unwanted dresser and give a free refund.

Even if your furniture is not Ikea, it should be secured to walls if you have a small child. According to the Consumer Product Safety Commission, a child in the U.S. is killed by a falling TV or furniture every two weeks, and a child is injured by falling furniture every 24 minutes.

Anchor furniture to walls. Even heavy furniture.

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(Image: Twitter/IkeaUSA)

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