Doctor accidentally strangled while using electric neck massager

Her neck aching after a night of wrapping gifts on Christmas Eve, Dr. Michelle Ferrari-Gegerson used an electronic massager to relieve the pain. That night, her lifeless body was found by her husband on the bedroom floor of their Parkland home. The culprit: the massager, say Broward Sheriff's Office detectives and the Medical Examiner's Office.



They believe it got tangled in her necklace and strangled her. Ferrari-Gegerson, 37, worked as a radiologist in the emergency room of Jackson Memorial Hospital and was the mother of a 1-year-old, colleagues said. "Last week she was here and she brought baked goods for various employees,'' said Barbara Perez Deppman, director for radiology at the hospital. "That's what type of person she was. Out of the blue, she would just give people food vouchers and take them out to lunch.''

According to BSO, Ferrari-Gegerson was discovered unconscious about 9 p.m. Christmas Eve by her husband, Dr. Kenneth Gegerson, a dentist. Gegerson, 43, called 911. When deputies and paramedics arrived, they found the electronic massager on the floor near her, according to BSO.


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BSO is withholding the brand and other details of the electronic massager while the investigation continues. Ferrari-Gegerson's apparent accident is not the first incident where an electronic massager has reportedly strangled someone. In December 2008, the Matoba Electric Manufacturing Company based in Saitama, Japan recalled an electronic foot massager after three reported cases in that country of women strangling themselves accidentally while using the machine as a neck massager.