A Brunswick family says the hospital-style bed that was supposed to protect a disabled U.S. Marine Corps veteran instead helped kill him, and they are now suing in federal court.
According to a new complaint, 75-year-old Donald Stask fell at his home when the side rail on his hospital-style bed allegedly gave way. His wife says in the filing that the fall led to a hospitalization and that Stask, a Marine who served in Vietnam, died roughly two weeks later. The suit accuses the Department of Veterans Affairs, the bed’s manufacturer and the local installer of negligence in what the family calls a preventable, fatal equipment failure.
Cleveland.com reports that the federal lawsuit, filed in Cleveland by Stask’s widow, Judith Stask, names the Louis Stokes Cleveland VA Medical Center, Drive Medical and Health Aid of Ohio as defendants. The complaint states that the VA medical center selected and supplied the bed, that Health Aid of Ohio installed it at the Stask home on July 31, 2024, and that a Drive Medical side rail allegedly broke, causing the fall that preceded his hospitalization and death.
Public product information for Drive Medical shows the company promotes hospital and homecare beds and bed rails, the same type of equipment at issue in the lawsuit. The company’s website also lists contact details and product categories that include beds and bed rails among its lines and corporate points of contact.
Health Aid of Ohio, identified in the complaint as the local durable medical equipment supplier that installed the bed, appears in business directories as a Cleveland-area company that provides delivery, setup and repair services for hospital beds and other home medical equipment. Those services and its local presence are reflected in business-registry and directory listings for the company, including entries with the Better Business Bureau.
The complaint describes Stask as bedridden and disabled at the time of the incident. It notes that he was a retired postal employee as well as a Marine veteran who served in Vietnam. His family says injuries from the fall left him hospitalized and that he died about two weeks later.
Legal Theories The Family Is Raising
Under Ohio product-liability law, claims over equipment failures often turn on whether a product was defectively manufactured, defectively designed, or sold with inadequate warnings or instructions. Plaintiffs must show that any defect existed when the product left the manufacturer and that the defect caused the injury. In addition to product-defect allegations, families can bring negligence or breach-of-warranty claims against suppliers or installers if their conduct or workmanship allegedly falls below the standard of care. As explained by The Lawrence Firm, these are the core theories Ohio courts evaluate in equipment-failure cases.
Bed-Rail Safety And Broader Recalls
Side rails and adult portable bed rails have been under federal scrutiny for years because of entrapment and asphyxiation risks, and they have been the subject of multiple recalls and consumer warnings. The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission has issued recalls and safety alerts involving adult portable bed rails, while national coverage has highlighted large-scale recalls and spelled out the agency’s concerns about serious hazards and deaths tied to some models. Recent actions and advisories from the CPSC and reporting by the AP outline those concerns and recent recall activity.
The Stask family’s lawsuit is now pending in federal court in Cleveland. Like most product and installation disputes, the case is expected to move through pleadings and discovery and could eventually head to trial or be resolved through settlement. The family says it went to court to seek answers and accountability for what it characterizes as a catastrophic failure of basic safety equipment in their home.
