Sullivan's Heated Paddle Blows Handle Off Hand
Model long flagged for exploding handles; Sullivan wore it, and latex gloves, against Reynaud's syndrome
Fourth such failure logged; Sullivan treated for eleven stitches and released
Committee reviews model; adjourns without a recall vote
By Anita Bath·Staff Reporter
Mr. Sullivan at Norwalk Hospital Tuesday night. He was treated for eleven stitches and released in just under four hours.
“This is the first thing that's actually worked. I'm not giving it up over one incident.”
ROWAYTON, Conn., Sept. 8 —Patrick Sullivan's heated paddle blew its handle off his hand Tuesday evening during casual play, the latest attempt by Mr. Sullivan to warm hands long troubled by Reynaud's syndrome and poor circulation.
The paddle, a battery-warmed model that has circulated at the club since 2019, has been known among members for a manufacturing defect in which the internal heating coil, if overcharged, separates the handle from the face with enough force to send it airborne. Tuesday's incident was the fourth such failure logged in the club's equipment book, and the second involving Mr. Sullivan's own paddle, which failed once before, in December 2023, without injury.
Mr. Sullivan, 54, has spent the better part of two seasons experimenting with remedies for his condition, which he says leaves his hands numb and discolored by the second point of any match played below forty degrees. He has previously worn latex gloves under his grip tape and, for one week last winter, a pair of chemical hand warmers taped directly to the paddle throat before switching to the heated model full time.
"I've tried everything short of standing next to the propane heater in the hut, and I did try that too," Mr. Sullivan said from the Norwalk Hospital emergency room, where he was treated for eleven stitches and released after just under four hours. "This is the first thing that's actually worked. I'm not giving it up over one incident."
The club's equipment safety chair, granted anonymity because he was not authorized to discuss an active review, said the committee had received three prior complaints about the model but had taken no formal action because none had resulted in an injury requiring stitches. He said the committee convened an emergency session Wednesday night that lasted two hours and six minutes and adjourned without a vote.
"We looked at recalling all of them," the chair said. "Then somebody asked how many members even own the heated version, and it turns out we don't have that number, so we tabled it until we do."
A customer-service line for the paddle's manufacturer, Thermogrip Paddle Systems, rang unanswered on three calls placed Wednesday afternoon. An automated message cited a fifty-one-minute average wait time and did not specify an alternative for members reporting an amputated grip.
Doctors treating Mr. Sullivan said the injury was consistent with blunt trauma from a rapidly ejected object rather than a burn, and that his Reynaud's syndrome played no role in the wound itself. Mr. Sullivan disputed this diagnosis on the way to the parking lot, attributing the injury instead to "a bad batch of coils, not my circulation, which has actually been great this year."
Word of the incident reached the hut by Wednesday morning, where the whiteboard normally reserved for lineup changes carried a hand-drawn illustration of a paddle handle in flight, unsigned. Members were seen inspecting their own paddles' battery compartments between games, a practice the equipment chair said he could neither endorse nor discourage until the committee reconvenes.
Mr. Sullivan left the hospital wearing a fresh pair of latex gloves, one size too small, the same brand he had worn beneath the handle that failed.
