Theodore "Ted" McGee died Feb. 14 when a bureau in his Apple Valley, Minn., bedroom tipped onto him, according to the family's lawyers. 
 
 Theodore "Ted" McGee died Feb. 14 when a bureau in his Apple Valley, Minn., bedroom tipped onto him, according to the family's lawyers. 
 
 Federal safety regulators are investigating the death of a Minnesota toddler crushed by an Ikea dresser in February, seven months after the retailer disclosed millions of its dressers are at risk of falling forward if not properly stabilized. 
 
 Theodore "Ted" McGee died Feb. 14 when a bureau in his Apple Valley, Minn., bedroom tipped onto him, according to the family's lawyers. His parents thought the 22-month-old was napping. 
 
 "They didn't hear the dresser fall," attorney Alan Feldman said. "They didn't hear Ted scream." 
 
 Ikea and the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission are reviewing McGee's death, according to representatives at both. 
 
 Scott Wolfson, spokesman for the commission, called it a "tragic tip-over fatality" but declined to discuss the investigation, citing a federal law that bars the agency from disclosing details of such reviews without the company's consent. 
 
 Last July, the commission and Ikea publicly acknowledged the company's dressers can become dangerously unstable if not attached to a wall. In a release, they said two children, including a West Chester 2-year-old, had died since 2014 when Ikea Malm dressers toppled onto them. Ikea also announced plans to send anchoring kits to any customers who requested them. 
 
 The so-called repair program - a type of recall - affected 27 million dressers, including seven million Malm units, a popular line that ranges in price from $46 to $179. In August, the Canadian government issued a similar recall affecting about six million more Ikea dressers. 
 
 The Swedish retailer, whose U.S. headquarters are in Conshohocken, says it has since sent more than 300,000 anchoring kits to consumers. It also launched a campaign to alert the public of the danger and remind consumers to attach their furniture to the wall. 
 
 In a statement to the Inquirer, safety commission chairman Elliot Kaye said the agency expected companies to remain vigilant, even after a recall. 
 
 "Without commenting on any specific case, companies are now on notice that even if there has been a public announcement about a remedy to address a dangerous product, the company must take every possible step to prevent further harm," he said. "This is especially the case when a child dies. Companies need to move fast and work with us on a comprehensive plan that offers their customers every necessary measure required for the sake of safety. I expect companies to truly put safety first." 
 
 Tip-overs, most involving unsecured dressers and televisions, lead to dozens of deaths and more than 38,000 emergency-room visits in the United States each year, experts say. 
 
 Ted McGee's parents didn't know the risk and never heard about the Ikea campaign, their lawyers said. 
 
 That had been a concern of safety advocates, who questioned why federal regulators and Ikea promoted the action as a "repair program" instead of labeling it a recall. Some argued doing so lessened the impact, since the word recall carries more weight with consumers. Advocates also stressed that including anchoring hardware with dressers - as Ikea long has - isn't enough, since many consumers don't realize the threat or attach the restraints. 
 
 Jeremy and Janet McGee bought their dresser in 2012, before their son was born. Both had children from previous marriages, but Ted was their first child together. 
 
 After putting him down for a nap that day, Janet McGee checked on her son about every 20 minutes, according to an Apple Valley police report reviewed by the Inquirer. On one visit, it said, she opened the door and saw her son's empty bed but expected to find Ted hiding in the room, as he often did when he was supposed to be napping. 
 
 Instead, she saw the tall, six-drawer dresser on the floor, toppled onto her son, the report said. First responders could not resuscitate the boy. Mann and Feldman said they were preparing a lawsuit against Ikea in connection with Ted McGee's death. They have already filed lawsuits on behalf of the families of the two other children who the safety commission said died in Malm tip-overs. 
 
 Curren Collas, the West Chester toddler, died in February 2014. His mother found him pinned between his toppled six-drawer Ikea dresser and his bed frame. 
 
 Camden Ellis, a 2-year-old from Snohomish, Wash., died four months later beneath a smaller, three-drawer Malm dresser. His parents said it happened on one of the first nights he slept in a toddler bed instead of a crib. 
 
 Believing other families have been affected by Ikea furniture tip-overs, the attorneys have launched a website - www.furniture-tip-over-accidents.com - hoping to hear from consumers. They also want Ikea to issue a recall that includes buying back its dressers and replacing them with ones that are more stable. Feldman called the repair program inadequate. 
 
 "How many kids should we sacrifice simply because this is a product that has some utility and that people will buy because it's inexpensive furniture?" he said. 
 
 Ikea spokeswoman Mona Astra Liss, in a statement, offered condolences to the McGee family. She said that product safety was Ikea's highest priority and that the company immediately notified the safety commission after learning of Ted McGee's death. 
 
 "Ikea has been advised that the product was not attached to the wall, which is an integral part of the product's assembly instructions," she said. "We wish to emphasize that the best way to prevent tip-over of chests of drawers is to attach products to the wall with the included restraints and hardware per the assembly instructions." 
 
 Liss said the company plans to expand its campaign "to ensure that this important message reaches even more people," but she did not elaborate. 
 
 Wolfson, the safety commission spokesman, reiterated its concerns about unanchored Ikea furniture. 
 
 "It just takes a few minutes to save a life," he said, urging consumers to get and attach the restraints. "Because we would be deeply concerned if a family had that dresser readily accessible to children before it is actually repaired." 
 
 tnadolny@phillynews.com 
 
 215-854-2730 @TriciaNadolny ||||| Jackie Collas, Curren's mother, stands in the boy's bedroom in West Chester, next to the Ikea dresser that fell on him. 
 
 Ikea will pay $50 million to the parents of three toddlers who died when its dressers toppled onto them, lawyers for the families said Wednesday. 
 
 The settlement comes six months after those deaths and others prompted the unprecedented recall of 29 million Ikea dressers that the company acknowledged could tip over and injure or kill children. 
 
 Jackie Collas of West Chester, whose 2-year-old son, Curren, was crushed by an Ikea dresser in 2014, said she was relieved the fight was over. But she said the settlement does not bring closure over Curren's death. 
 
 "Your life, it will always be cut in half," Collas said Wednesday. "Even if I live until 100, it's going to be before Curren and after Curren." 
 
 The plaintiffs also include the parents of 2-year-old Camden Ellis of Snohomish, Wash., who died in 2014, and 22-month-old Theodore McGee of Apple Valley, Minn., who died in 2015. 
 
 Their wrongful death suits, filed in Philadelphia, were part of a wave of scrutiny on Ikea and the wider danger of furniture tip-overs. The preventable threat, chronicled extensively by the Inquirer, kills scores of children and injures thousands more each year. 
 
 Consumer advocates have pushed for more stringent safety standards, and the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission has been in talks with Ikea for more than two years to address concerns about its dressers. 
 
 It was not immediately clear if the settlement was unprecedented, but lawyers said the $50 million payout might be among the highest for a case over a child's death. The money will be split equally among the three families, with an undisclosed share going to attorneys. 
 
 Ikea has also agreed to give $100,000 to a Chicago nonprofit focused on tip-over awareness and make $50,000 donations to three children's hospitals in communities where the boys lived. One will go to Children's Hospital of Philadelphia in memory of Curren Collas. 
 
 "He would be proud that we fought so hard and for him," Jackie Collas said. 
 
 In all, seven deaths have been publicly linked to unstable Ikea dressers, the first in 1989. 
 
 The three lawsuits filed in Common Pleas Court claimed Ikea had known for years of the danger posed by its dressers, yet continued to sell them. Ikea, in turn, argued the parents were negligent for not anchoring the dressers to the wall, as the assembly instructions direct. 
 
 The first of the three trials was expected to start next year. 
 
 The company instead agreed to settle weeks after turning over to the parents' attorneys the last batch from a trove of internal documents it had long fought to keep confidential, going so far as to risk being sanctioned by a judge. 
 
 Alan Feldman of Feldman Shepherd, the Center City firm that represented the families, would not discuss the contents of the records, but said they "100 percent" provided leverage in reaching a settlement. 
 
 Under the settlement, which came after two days of mediation, the families' attorneys agreed to return the files to Ikea, with the stipulation that the company not destroy them. 
 
 "That was important to us and to the families," said lawyer Daniel Mann, who also represents the parents. "In the event there are other children this happens to, their families will be able to see what we have seen." 
 
 The lawyers said they also represent three other individuals - two children and one senior citizen - who allege they were injured in tip-overs of Ikea dressers. They would not say whether they were also negotiating settlements for those cases. 
 
 Lawyers for Ikea, which has its U.S. headquarters in Conshohocken, deferred comment Wednesday to a company spokeswoman. That spokeswoman did not respond to a request to comment. 
 
 Ikea has made at least two previous payouts to the parents of children killed in tip-overs of its furniture. 
 
 In 2008, Ikea paid $2.3 million to the parents of Katie Elise Lambert, a 3-year-old Huntingdon Valley girl crushed by an Ikea wardrobe while playing in her bedroom, court records show. 
 
 The company settled another case the following year, for an undisclosed amount, filed by the parents of a 3-year old girl from Chula Vista, Calif., who died when a three-drawer Ikea dresser in her bedroom tipped onto her. 
 
 As part of the June recall, Ikea pulled from the market all of its dressers that did not meet the industry-accepted standard for stability - about half its product line. The standard is meant to ensure dressers remain upright even when not anchored to a wall. 
 
 Philadelphia Media Network, owner of the Inquirer, the Daily News, and Philly.com, has filed a suit in federal court seeking records from those recall negotiations from the Consumer Product Safety Commission. The case is pending. 
 
 Mann, one of the families' attorneys, called the significant payout recognition that the parents were not at fault and that the company could have done more to prevent deaths. 
 
 "It reflects an admission by Ikea they did something wrong," he said. "It reflects that no matter what they say . . . about it being the responsibility of the parents to anchor their dressers to the wall, that it doesn't happen. It reflects that jurors were going to see through their arguments and blaming the parents who have suffered awful tragedies." 
 
 Of the other families in the suit, Charlie and Crystal Ellis said in a statement that the settlement was no cure for their pain, but that it gave them hope others will be spared the "unimaginable loss." 
 
 And Janet McGee said her goal was to protect other children. 
 
 "This has been a tragic, heartbreaking season for us and our family," she said in a statement. "And no amount of money will make up for the loss of our sweet little boy." 
 
 tnadolny@phillynews.com215-854-2730 
 
 @TriciaNadolny ||||| Jozef Dudek, a 2-year-old boy from Buena Park, Calif., died in May when a three-drawer Malm dresser in his bedroom fell on him after he was put down for an afternoon nap, according to a lawyer for the family. 
 
 Another child has died beneath a tipped IKEA dresser. 
 
 Jozef Dudek, 2, was crushed by a Malm dresser in his California bedroom in May after being put down for a nap, according to a lawyer for the boy’s parents. Ikea and the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission on Wednesday both confirmed being aware of the death, and a spokesman for the safety agency said it had opened an investigation. 
 
 Jozef is the eighth child known to have died when an unsecured Ikea dresser toppled forward and the first confirmed death since last year’s historic recall of 29 million of the company’s bureaus. 
 
 His death has revived concerns from safety advocates about the effectiveness of the recall, which has resulted in only a small fraction of the dressers being repaired or destroyed, and whether Ikea should be doing more to raise awareness with consumers. 
 
 Jozef’s parents did not know the dresser had been recalled, according to their attorney, Daniel Mann of Philadelphia’s Feldman Shepherd law firm. 
 
 “Jozef’s tragic death was completely avoidable,” said Mann, who has represented the parents of three other children who died in tip-overs of dressers from the popular line. “What makes this death more heartbreaking is the fact that last year’s so-called recall was poorly publicized by Ikea and ineffective in getting these defective and unstable dressers out of children’s bedrooms across the country.” 
 
 In a statement, a spokeswoman for Ikea on Wednesday said the dresser had not been attached to the wall and encouraged consumers to use anchors included with its products. 
 
 “Our hearts go out to the affected family, and we offer our sincere condolences during this most difficult time,” spokeswoman Mona Astra Liss said. 
 
 Last year’s recall was among the largest in the safety agency’s history, involving not just dressers from Ikea’s Malm line, which at the time had been linked to at least four deaths, but dozens of other models sold by the retailer over decades. The company agreed to give full refunds in most cases. 
 
 It also redesigned many of its dressers to meet the industry’s safety standard, which requires dressers to remain upright without being anchored when a 50-pound weight is hung on a drawer. 
 
 The recall came after years of negotiations with the Consumer Product Safety Commission. In 2015, Ikea agreed to address the hazard with a program that included sending new anchoring kits to consumers. Negotiations with safety regulators restarted when a 2-year-old boy from Apple Valley, Minn., died beneath an Ikea dresser, the third death in two years. His parents said they had not heard of the dangers posed by the dressers. 
 
 The most recent death was reported to police about 5:30 p.m. on May 24 in Buena Park, Calif. Mann said Jozef’s father found the child trapped beneath the three-drawer Malm dresser. 
 
 Mann has declined to provide further details about the incident, saying the parents are trying to “privately grieve the passing of their lovely and only son.” He said the parents plan to sue Ikea, which has its North American headquarters in Conshohocken. 
 
 Ikea in December agreed to pay $50 million to settle suits filed by the parents of three children killed in Malm tip-overs in 2014 and 2015, including 2-year-old Curren Collas of West Chester. 
 
 Upon learning of the most recent death, eight consumer and health organizations on Wednesday issued a joint statement calling on Ikea and the safety commission to increase efforts to raise awareness of the recall. The groups called Ikea’s efforts to date “lackluster.” 
 
 Members of several of the organizations have stressed that Ikea needs to specifically tell consumers about the recall rather than focusing on its “Secure It!” campaign, which encourages general anchoring practices. 
 
 William Wallace of Consumers Union, the policy and action division of Consumer Reports, said Ikea should promote the dangers posed by its dressers with the same vigor it put “into marketing the product in the first place.” 
 
 Benjamin Hoffman, chair of the American Academy of Pediatrics Council on Injury, Violence and Poison Protection, said that effort needs to include making the recall as easy to access as possible. 
 
 “If the recall had been truly successful nobody would be hurt any longer,” he said. “And the fact that a child in California is dead, it’s inexcusable.” 
 
 After years of pushing for more action by Ikea and federal safety regulators, Rachel Weintraub, legislative director of the Consumer Federation of America, gasped when she heard from a reporter about the new death. 
 
 “Oh my god,” she said. “This is horrific and tragic news and really exactly what we never want to hear again.” 
 
 Astra Liss, the Ikea spokeswoman, said the company has continued sharing information about the recall on its website and through social media and email campaigns while focusing on its wider public awareness campaign. She encouraged consumers to take part in the recall, either by ordering a free wall anchoring kit from Ikea or returning the product for a refund. 
 
 As part of the recall, Ikea will send a crew to consumers’ homes to either anchor dressers or collect them. 
 
 It is unclear how many of the 29 million dressers have been either repaired, returned or destroyed. Ikea on Wednesday declined to say how many have been addressed through the recall. 
 
 The company must file monthly progress reports to the Consumer Product Safety Commission, and the one filed for the period ending Jan. 1 showed that about 882,500 dressers had been addressed through the recall and earlier repair program. That is about 3 percent of those recalled. 
 
 The Inquirer has filed an open-records request with the safety agency for more recent reports, but the response numbers have been redacted on those provided.
– Another Ikea dresser has apparently toppled over and killed a young child. Theodore "Ted" McGee was 22 months old when the unstable dresser fell and crushed him while he was napping on Feb. 14 in Apple Valley, Minn., his family's lawyers tell the Philadelphia Inquirer. His parents "didn't hear the dresser fall," says attorney Alan Feldman. "They didn't hear Ted scream." The accusation is swinging a spotlight back on Ikea, which started a program last July to help stabilize 27 million dressers after a toddler and a 2-year-old were crushed to death under similar circumstances. Under the "repair program," Ikea issued warnings and offered to send anchoring kits to customers who requested them, USA Today reported at the time. But Ted McGee's parents had never heard about the danger or Ikea's program, their lawyers say. Janet and Jeremy McGee bought the dresser specifically for Ted, their first child after each had kids in earlier marriages. On the day Ted died, Janet was checking on him and noticed his empty bed, but figured he was just hiding somewhere during nap time. That's when she found his lifeless body under the fallen six-drawer dresser. Now the family's lawyers—who have already sued Ikea for the other two families and started a website about the crisis—are readying a lawsuit for the McGees. Ikea has offered the McGee family condolences but reminds them that anchoring the product "is an integral part of the product's assembly instructions." Federal safety regulators are investigating the case.