'Sling rider' recalled in wake of baby deaths; mom here lost a son

Anthoinette Medley went to the Gallery shopping mall on Feb. 20, 2009, excited to meet a friend and show off her newborn twin boys.

Excitement quickly turned to horror when Medley noticed blood on her son Nelsir's bib as he lay nestled inside an Infantino Sling Rider baby sling, her attorney, Alan Feldman, said yesterday.

Scared, she took him to the ladies room and found that he was unresponsive. Medics took him to Thomas Jefferson University Hospital, where he died of suffocation believed to be caused from the sling, Feldman said.

"The most difficult thing has been accepting it," Medley said yesterday. "I will never hold my child again. That's why I want to reach out to so many other parents so they don't have to go through what I went through."

Medley is contemplating legal action in the case.

Yesterday, Infantino recalled more than a million of the "SlingRider" and "Wendy Bellissimo" infant carriers in the United States and Canada combined, according to a statement on the California-based firm's Web site.

Nelsir's death is the third linked to the sling; the others were a 6-day-old child in Salem, Ore., and a 3-month-old in Cincinnati, according to a statement released yesterday by the Consumer Product Safety Commission. The commission did not give the exact cause of the other deaths .

Infantino President Jack Vresics said in a statement that the company has been working closely with the commission on its sling concerns.

"Our top priority is the safety of infants whose parents and caregivers use our products," Vresics said. He said the company would offer a free replacement baby carrier, activity gym or shopping- cart cover to any affected consumer. The company urged consumers to stop using the recalled slings immediately.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.