Estimated read time: 2-3 minutes
- A jury awarded Brandy Buckley over $14 million for consuming tainted ice cream.
- Buckley experienced severe health issues after swallowing a nail from Bruster's Ice Cream.
- The legal battle lasted eight years; an appeal is expected from the ice cream shop.
PALM BAY, Fla. — A jury awarded a West Melbourne woman more than $14 million after she consumed ice cream with a nail and metal fragments in it, according to her attorney.
Court documents allege the woman, Brandy Buckley, purchased the ice cream from Bruster's Ice Cream on Malabar Road in Palm Bay back in 2018. Buckley told WESH 2 she left the ice cream shop with her son. He wanted some of her butter pecan.
"I got to the light to scoop some of the ice cream out," she said. "I noticed there was a metal nail in like in the cone, almost embedded, it looked like in the cone."
She said she had already taken a big bite.
"When I did swallow, I did feel something in my throat that kind of got stuck," she said. "I thought it was a pecan because it was a butter pecan ice cream that I had purchased."
But she said she went to a hospital to get an X-ray, just in case.
"Just to be clear, to make sure that's what it was, a pecan, and it wasn't," Buckley said. "It was a nail. So I had swallowed a nail."
Buckley's attorney said in a release that doctors later removed one of the nails and multiple pieces of metal during surgery.
The attorney said the medical treatment didn't stop there. There were complications, including portal vein thrombosis and significant internal bleeding, resulting in another procedure.
Eventually, Buckley said, "I developed a blood clot. I developed a blood clot. After that, that led me into an ablation to where I couldn't have any more children."
Something she said she very much wanted after losing a daughter in 2011.
"That was my goal, and my dream was to have more kids," she said.
In 2019, Buckley's attorney filed a lawsuit against Malabar Creameries doing business as Bruster's Ice Cream and the national franchisor, alleging negligence.
In a response filed by their attorneys back in 2020, they denied many of the claims made against them.
In their defense, they accused Buckley of negligence, which caused or contributed to the incident, and said that any product the business allegedly sold and Buckley allegedly consumed "was not defective."
It was a long legal process.
"It took us eight years to get where we are today," Buckley said.
On March 24, Buckley's attorney, Scott Alpizar, said a jury awarded Buckley money for medical bills and pain and suffering totaling more than $14 million.
"It was shocking. I started bawling," Buckley said.
WESH 2 did reach out to the attorney representing the ice cream shop and the national franchise in this case, but didn't hear back as of Wednesday evening.
Buckley's attorney said he expects them to appeal the decision.
It could be years before she sees any money if things end in her favor.
