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Injured Central Point girl settles with washer-maker By DANI DODGE It was Father's Day 1998 and 9-year-old Amber Newcomb was excitedly getting ready to go to the lake. Her mother asked Amber - the oldest of the family's three girls - to throw some towels into the new washing machine. "The next thing I remember was being on top of the washing machine," Amber recalled Tuesday. "Then I blanked out. "I woke up in the hospital." As she threw in the towels, Amber's arm was caught in the violent agitation of the family's White-Westinghouse washing machine. Although doctors at Portland's Doernbecher Children's Hospital performed seven surgeries to reattach her arm, they couldn't save it. Amber now has a stump that ends just below her elbow. She can't even tie her own shoes. Tuesday, Amber, her mother and her attorneys held a press conference at the Rogue Regency Hotel in Medford, urging the Consumer Product Safety Commission to recall between 5 and 10 million washing machines that continue to agitate after being opened. They also urged anyone who owns those machines to be aware of the danger. (The machines are manufactured under brand names including Frigidaire, Westinghouse, Gibson, Kelvinator and Tappan.) Amber's attorneys also announced the settlement Amber won in her lawsuit against White Consolidated Industries, now owned by Electrolux. The settlement requires the manufacturer to add automatic shut-off switches to machines manufactured after Monday. "I'm glad they are making a change to the washing machines so this won't happen to anyone else," the 13-year-old Central Point girl said. A seventh-grader at Scenic Middle School, Amber spoke quietly in front of the cameras. But after the lights dimmed, her green eyes sparkled with life as she talked about her interests. She's fascinated by Cleopatra and all things Egyptian and someday wants to be an archaeologist. She likes to sing and even wrote a song recently for a friend who had to move away. Her favorite class is homeroom reading, where she can just sit with a book and follow her imagination down the pages. But she also hopes to become a national figure as she, her parents and her attorneys try to broadcast their message about the danger posed by washing machines without a safety shut-off switch. "The one way we can get something out of this is to warn other people," Amber's mom, Rebecca Newcomb, said. "If it could happen to us it could happen to other people. "People just take it for granted it's safe - it's a major brand." White Consolidated Industries settled the case with Amber a few weeks before it was to go to trial this summer. In the settlement, Amber not only won $3 million, but also got several unusual non-monetary agreements, including making retrofit kits available to consumers at cost through a Web site or service personnel beginning Monday. The company has not yet told the attorneys which Web site will be used for the retrofit kits and the companies could not be reached for comment Tuesday. In the meantime, Amber said she's trying to live the life of a normal teen. She's learned to bowl and write with her left hand, although she doesn't always hit strikes, and the teacher sometimes has to ask her to write more clearly. Amber has taken on all the challenges of her two-armed peers, including a difficult obstacle course at summer Bible camp that included scaling a 20-foot wall and bungee jumping. "She's inspired me," Amber's mother said. "She has the ability to try to overcome everything that she comes up against." She's even gotten used to the fact that someone else has to lace up her shoes - she had to because she wasn't about to give up her Nikes for slip-on loafers. "I'm picky," she explained with a grin. Reach reporter Dani Dodge at 776-4471, or e-mail [email protected] Mail Tribune Home | Ottaway Newspapers, Inc. | Dow Jones & Co., Inc. | Privacy | Contact Us Copyright � 2001 Mail Tribune, Inc.