Mother Says Blade From Blender Dislodged, Striking Son, But Narrowly Missing His Eye

THOUSAND OAKS (CBSLA.com) — A mother says a common kitchen appliance went haywire and injured her young son in the process.

Lauren Shaffer says the freak accident involving the blender left her son with a gash of stitches, narrowly missing his eye.

"I saw something fly towards him and then it ricocheted off his eyebrow and landed on the floor in front of my daughter who was on the other side of me," recalls the Thousand Oaks mother.

That object, Shaffer says, was an extremely sharp blade from her Ninja Kitchen blender.

"He was screaming. Blood was everywhere," she said.

Shaffer says the blade dislodged from the blender as her husband was walking with it unplugged to the freezer for ice.

"Oh, God. My heart is racing even thinking about it," she said. "Panic. My husband was panicking. We were panicking."

Seven stitches later, her son Carter was back home.

That's when Shaffer said she reached out to Ninja to tell them what happened. She says customer service wasn't very helpful.

"The only advice she had for me was from now on, we need to start bringing ice to the pitcher when we want to use it," she said.

Shaffer says she wants the company to change the design so that the blade actually locks into place and it can't easily fall out.

"Raising it up like at a 45 degree angle to an ice maker shouldn't cause it to fly out," she said.

On Shaffer's post about the accident, on Ninja's Facebook page, other customers have complained that the blade doesn't lock.

Late Thursday, Ninja released a statement that said: "We are conducting a thorough review – including ongoing conversations directly with the customer – to understand the situation and take any appropriate next steps."