The suit alleges that the repair technicians were improperly trained and should have removed Thompson from the wheelchair and disconnected its battery before starting repairs. A spokesman for the Tennessee-based company said it would not comment on pending litigation.
“He was just such a fine young man who had recovered from a major injury, being a quadriplegic, and had developed into someone who was very special,’’ Charles Thompson said of his son. “He laughed and smiled every day.’’
Jeffrey Thompson was 29 when he died, 12 years after being paralyzed in a car crash in which a high school friend was driving, his father said. He went on to attend college and advocated for changes that made public transportation in Massachusetts more accessible for the disabled.
Thompson, who lived with his parents, was home alone on Dec. 10, 2007, when two repairmen from the Boston-area office of National Seating & Mobility arrived to perform maintenance on the electrical wiring of the wheelchair, the family said.
Thompson was sitting in the chair when it malfunctioned and abruptly “jumped,’’ causing his legs to become pinned under the table he was sitting at, the lawsuit contends. Thompson suffered a broken leg, according to his father, and the lawsuit said he went into “uncontrollable seizures’’ after the accident.
The repairmen first called Thompson’s personal care assistant, who instructed them to call 911, Friedmann said. He was taken to a hospital, where he died the following day.
“There’s no reason the wheelchair should have shorted out [during] routine servicing, there’s no reason why the battery should have been connected, there’s no reason Jeff should have been in that chair, and there’s no reason why he shouldn’t be here today,’’ Friedmann said.
The two repairmen had not been to the home before, and Charles Thompson said a previous technician had always removed Jeffrey from the wheelchair and placed him in another at the home before starting maintenance. The wheelchair cost about $15,000, he said.
