Florida man, 81, sues Jaguar ‘after automatic door on his $96,000 car closed severing his thumb like a “modern-day guillotine”‘
- WARNING: GRAPHIC IMAGE
- Theodore Levy, 81, said he was getting out of the driver’s side of his Jaguar XJL R in August last year when the Soft-Close Automatic Doors activated
- The door closed, leaving his thumb ‘hanging just by a string of skin’ he claims
- ‘Plaintiff observed in horror as the door severed the upper potion of his formerly fully functional right thumb’, the lawsuit filed on Thursday said
- Levy said he was able to free his hand when someone else opened the door
- He is said to have put his thumb on ice but doctors were unable to save it
A Florida man is suing Jaguar claiming the automatic door on his $96,000 car closed severing his thumb like a ‘modern-day guillotine’.
Theodore Levy, 81, said he was getting out of the driver’s side of his Jaguar XJL R in August last year when the Soft-Close Automatic Doors (SCAD) activated.
The door closed, severing the joint and leaving it ‘basically hanging just by a string of skin’, according to his lawyer.
A lawsuit, filed on Thursday in the U.S. District Court of New Jersey, states: ‘The soft close automatic mechanism and motor pulled the driver’s door firmly, and not ‘so softly’ pulverized the bone structure, and crushed the flesh, nerves, blood vessels, tendons, and musculature of the distal portion of [Levy]’s right thumb.’
Theodore Levy said he was getting out of the driver’s side of his Jaguar XJL R in August last year when the Soft-Close Automatic Doors activated severing his thumb (stock image)
Levy is said to have tried to save his thumb, putting it on ice before driving to Jupiter Medical Center Hospital but it could not be saved. His hand pictured after the August 2018 incident
It goes on: ‘Plaintiff observed in horror as the door severed the upper potion of his formerly fully functional right thumb.
‘Blood from his ruptured vessels immediately filled the previously sturdy area that had encompassed the structure of the thumb.’
Levy was able to free his hand when someone else opened the door as the SCAD technology does not detect objects in its path, according to his attorney Avi Cohen.
He told Gizmodo: ‘When it was opened up from the front, his right thumb was basically hanging just by a string of skin. It’s horrible.
‘It’s a modern-day guillotine.’
Levy is said to have tried to save his thumb, putting it on ice before driving to Jupiter Medical Center Hospital but it could not be saved.
By the time he got there Cohen says it was completely detached and Levy was forced to go by ambulance to St. Mary’s Hospital in West Palm Beach.
Doctors there operated but could not save the thumb which is ‘shadow of what it used to be, he has limited motor strength, exhibits a limited range of movement, and is in pain daily’, according to the lawsuit.
A Jaguar spokesperson said they not able to comment on ongoing litigation when approached by Gizmodo.
DailyMail.com has approached Jaguar for comment.