Overview
- This week Feldman Shepherd filed a wrongful‑death suit in Hennepin County on behalf of Taylor and Tyler Bethard, alleging Target failed to warn them and other customers about the danger posed by Chuckle & Roar water beads.
- Medical examiners concluded the 10‑month‑old, who died on July 7, 2023, died after swallowing a single water bead that expanded inside her and caused a fatal intestinal obstruction.
- The complaint says Target received reports of at least two prior life‑threatening incidents in 2022, removed the product from sale in November 2022, and did not notify customers who had already purchased the kit.
- Target has expressed sympathy and declined to comment on the active litigation while court records show it previously denied knowing of an extraordinary danger in earlier New York filings.
- Water beads are made of super‑absorbent polymer that can swell hundreds of times when wet and have been linked to thousands of U.S. emergency‑room cases; the CPSC recalled about 52,000 Chuckle & Roar kits in September 2023 and regulators have since tightened safety standards.