Man injured by Corning cookware that exploded in his hand wins $1.15M appeal

[spaminator]

Man injured by Corning cookware that exploded in his hand wins $1.15M appeal
Jane Sims, QMI Agency
First posted: Friday, November 07, 2014 09:41 PM EST | Updated: Friday, November 07, 2014 09:58 PM EST
LONDON, Ont. -- A legal battle more than a decade long ended this week when the Ontario Court of Appeal upheld a $1.15-million award to a London, Ont., man who was badly injured when a piece of cookware broke in his hands.
Lanny Stilwell, now 58, almost bled to death while washing the dishes on Sept. 11, 2000. He was rinsing a Visions glass Dutch oven when he heard a pop and then began to bleed uncontrollably.
By the time he got to hospital, medical staff couldn't find his blood pressure and he'd lost 3.5 litres of blood. The average person has five litres.
The pot had broken into four sharp pieces. Stilwell had severed arteries, tendons and nerves requiring three surgeries. He lost the use of his hand and doesn't have any feeling from halfway up his forearm to the ends of his fingers.
The injury ended Stilwell's career as a lift truck operator. His wife, Mickey Neale, 51, had to quit her job as a lab technician to look after him.
WATCH: Corning’s Visions promotional video from 1986
Click here to view the video on a mobile device.
The couple sued World Kitchen Inc., but the case stalled when the company went into bankruptcy protection. The couple had to add Corning Incorporated as a defendant in 2008.
The couple and their lawyer, Michael Smitiuch, discovered there have been more than 2,000 incidents in the U.S. and Canada in which people have been injured by the cookware when it broke.
Smitiuch, who has been invited to conferences to speak about the litigation, said it's the longest personal injury case he's steered and likely one of the longest running personal lawsuits in Ontario history.
jane.sims@sunmedia.ca
Twitter: @JaneatLFPress

Lanny Stilwell sits with his wife, Mickey Neale, in the kitchen of their home where, while doing the dishes in 2000, Stilwell was injured when a dutch oven shattered in his hands, severely injuring his right hand. Stilwell sued Corning Inc. and World Kitchen Inc., winning a $1.15 million settlement after 14 years of legal battles in a case which was decided in the Ontario Court of Appeal. The couple are pictured here in their Beachville, Ontario home on November 7, 2014. (CRAIG GLOVER/QMI Agency)​

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Corning Visions Cookware (1986 Holiday Promo) - YouTube​

Man injured by Corning cookware that exploded in his hand wins $1.15M appeal | C​

 

[Sal]

LONDON, Ont. -- A legal battle more than a decade long ended this week when the Ontario Court of Appeal upheld a $1.15-million award to a London, Ont., man who was badly injured when a piece of cookware broke in his hands.

Lanny Stilwell, now 58, almost bled to death while washing the dishes on Sept. 11, 2000. He was rinsing a Visions glass Dutch oven when he heard a pop and then began to bleed uncontrollably.

By the time he got to hospital, medical staff couldn't find his blood pressure and he'd lost 3.5 litres of blood. The average person has five litres.

The pot had broken into four sharp pieces. Stilwell had severed arteries, tendons and nerves requiring three surgeries. He lost the use of his hand and doesn't have any feeling from halfway up his forearm to the ends of his fingers.

The injury ended Stilwell's career as a lift truck operator. His wife, Mickey Neale, 51, had to quit her job as a lab technician to look after him.

he was injured in a fairly significant way....1.5 not that much hope his lawyer didn't suck up most of it

 

[tay]

Well, it's not supposed to shatter........










Scientist who developed CorningWare dies in NY






S. Donald Stookey was a young scientist researching the properties of glass when in 1952 he put a glass plate into an oven to heat it. But the oven malfunctioned.


Instead of heating to about 1,100 degrees Fahrenheit, the oven shot up to more than 1,600 degrees. Stookey expected to find a molten mess. Instead, he found an opaque, milky-white plate.


As he was removing it from the oven, his tongs slipped, and the plate fell to the floor. But instead of shattering, it bounced.


Stookey, who died Tuesday at 99, had just discovered glass ceramics — a breakthrough that soon led to the development of CorningWare, the durable, heat-resistant ceramic glass used to make millions upon millions of baked lasagnas, tuna casseroles and other potluck-dinner dishes.


Although he was never a household name, Stookey’s best-known invention found a home in most American kitchens in the form of white dishes decorated with small blue cornflowers.


The space-age material was so strong that the military used it in guided missile nose cones.


Stookey died at an assisted-living centre in Rochester, New York, said his son Donald Stookey. He said his father broke a hip in a fall a few months ago and underwent surgery, but his health deteriorated.


“He was one of the great glass scientists in the history of the world,” said Steve Feller, a physics professor at Coe College in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, where Stookey earned an undergraduate degree in chemistry and mathematics and remained active in alumni activities. “Virtually everyone has had CorningWare at some point in time, and there were all sorts of spinoff applications from his fantastic work.”


CorningWare was celebrated for its versatility. It was strong enough to withstand minor kitchen mishaps, and it gave home cooks the ability to bake and serve food in the same dish. The dishes could go straight from the oven to the dinner table and then into the refrigerator or freezer.


You could also put them in a microwave, and some types could be heated atop a stove. For decades, they were a common sight at family gatherings, church dinners and holiday feasts.


Stookey joined Corning Glass Works in New York in 1940, the same year he graduated with a doctorate in physical chemistry from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He immersed himself in research, studying the complex chemistry of oxidation and its effects on glass, according to a company biography.


Corning patented its glass ceramics as Pyroceram. By the end of the 1950s, CorningWare had become one of the company’s most successful product lines.


“He was fearless — the unknown never daunted him,” said David Morse, Corning’s chief technology officer. “He was an unassuming and quiet but tough person,” whose numerous inventions generated big businesses for the company. “Don was recognized throughout the glass technology community as a world-class scientist.”


In a 2011 interview, Stookey said he initially viewed glass research as a way to make money, but he became intrigued by glass’ special characteristics.


“I thought this might be a field where I could find something new, invent things not seen before, and I was lucky to have that be the case,” he said in a video project funded by the History Channel for the Corning Museum of Glass.


Stookey held the patent on CorningWare, according to his son, who believes his father made money on a percentage of the sales but did not get rich.


In the late 1960s, the elder Stookey felt burned-out and out of ideas, the son said. He offered to leave the company. The family that started Corning told him to take a year off with pay. He travelled the world and returned to spend another 20 years with the company.


CorningWare is still sold today, although it is now marketed by World Kitchen LLC, a Rosemont, Illinois-based company formed after Corning Inc. spun off its consumer-products division in 1998.


Stookey earned 60 U.S. patents. His other innovations included developing photosensitive glass that helped lead to colour television picture tubes.


He received the National Medal of Technology from President Ronald Reagan in 1987. In 2010, at age 94, he was inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame.


“Half of his life was being a professional, well-known scientist, and the other half was fully being a father to three of us kids, a family man and a good husband,” Stookey’s son said. “He took us hunting and fishing and on vacations around the country and around the world.”


Stookey was born in Hay Springs, Nebraska, on May 23, 1915. His family moved from Nebraska to Cedar Rapids when he was 6. He graduated from Coe College in 1936 before earning a master’s degree in chemistry from Lafayette College in Easton, Pennsylvania, followed by the MIT doctorate.




Scientist who developed CorningWare dies in NY | Metro

 

[CDNBear]

Why exactly did his wife have to look after him?

I had both shoulders pinned and still managed to look after myself as I convalesced.

 

[tay]

Why exactly did his wife have to look after him?

I had both shoulders pinned and still managed to look after myself as I convalesced.

Sometimes there are details we would rather not know about...........

 

[CDNBear]

Sometimes there are details we would rather not know about...........

Like what?

The loss of use of one hand and blood loss does not require a helper monkey. It smells to me, is all.