An 11-month-old boy was allegedly asphyxiated when he crawled under an electric-powered recliner in a couch and after the boy’s 3-year-old sister operated the couch’s controls the footrest closed on him, pulling him under.

The parents of the boy filed a lawsuit against Ashley Furniture, the company that sold them the product. Ashley salesperson Paula Andrews was also named in the lawsuit over the 2022 death of their son, Ryder Michael Ross.

Nicaela Bier and Joshua Ross filed the complaint in Clark County District Court against Ashley Furniture and the salesperson.

Brett Carter, one of the attorneys representing the parents, told the Las Vegas Review-Journal that the child was “pushed against the mechanism, and he asphyxiated. It’s about as tragic as you can get.”

The folding chair “acts as a sweep without any protection,” he told the newspaper. “It muffles any of the sound for the child when it’s closed. Their gasping can’t be heard.”

The lawsuit contends that the Cranedall 5-piece Power Reclining Sectional, a V-shaped couch, was defectively designed and manufactured by Ashley Furniture and that the company and Andrews acted negligently in not warning the boy’s parents about potential hazards to children.

According to The Brunswick News, the accident occurred on May 8, 2022, at the family’s home, and the boy was taken to a medical center, where it was discovered that he suffered from an abrasion to his scalp and a severe brain injury with a lack of oxygen, according to the lawsuit. The child was transferred a hospice facility in Las Vegas, where he died on May 26, 2022, of the brain injury, known as hypoxic ischemic injury and encephalopathy, based on the lawsuit.

Carter said he and his clients want to make sure that the public is aware of the dangers of such recliners to children and to prevent something like this from happening again.