Trending Topics

Wis. ambulance cot company surrenders its inventory

Monster Medic’s assets won’t cover its more than $4 million in debt

By Rick Romell
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

WAUKESHA COUNTY, Wis. — A receiver will sell off the assets of a debt-burdened and now-shuttered Mukwonago company that made and sold specialized ambulance cots.

Monster Medic Inc. recently surrendered its inventory and other assets to its chief secured creditor, which this week took the company into receivership.

The action is the latest step for a 4-year-old firm that also has seen accusations of patent infringement and poor performance of its equipment. Monster Medic’s assets won’t cover its more than $4 million in debt, according to the receivership petition filed in Waukesha County Circuit Court.

Among the debts are $300,000 owed to a Michigan company to settle the patent allegations, which Monster Medic denied, plus $1.5 million in trade debt and more than $2 million owed to secured creditor SWAS Corp.

Milwaukee attorney Michael S. Polsky has been appointed receiver.

Headed by President Jaime C. Reed, who could not be reached Friday, Monster Medic has at least four patents pending on equipment used by emergency medical crews.

U.S. Patent Office records also show the firm holds a patent on an ambulance cot that uses hydraulics to help with movement of obese patients.

A supervisor with a Texas ambulance company said Friday that his firm sued Monster Medic following problems with its cots, including an incident in which a wheel broke while a crew was transporting a 400-pound patient in 2009.

Jessie Griffith, of Northeast Texas EMS, said the company sued to try to recover about $21,000 it spent on five cots.

The lawsuit is pending, Griffith said.

Copyright 2011 Journal Sentinel Inc.

RECOMMENDED FOR YOU