Man gave himself a dangerous “knapsack heated rice footsie,” wants Dr. Oz to pay

Mar 20, 2013 06:49 GMT  ·  By
Dr. Oz is being sued by viewer who claims one insomnia cure presented on the show left him with badly burned feet
   Dr. Oz is being sued by viewer who claims one insomnia cure presented on the show left him with badly burned feet

Dr. Mehmet Oz is being sued by a 76-year-old man who claims one insomnia cure he presented on his show left him with severe burns on his feet. Dr. Oz failed to provide warnings or proper instructions when he talked about the cure, the lawsuit argues.

Frank Dietl, a 76-year-old man, gave himself the “knapsack heated rice footsie” he’d heard about on Dr. Oz, in the hope that it might help him sleep at night, while also making him feel more energized.

It consists of filling the toes of a pair of socks with uncooked rice and popping them in the microwave over to warm them. The insomniac slips them on as they are, and goes to bed.

This is what Dietl also did, the New York Daily News reports. However, he suffers from neuropathy, or numbness of the feet caused by diabetes, which means he had no idea how hot he’d made the socks.

It wasn’t until he got up to use the bathroom that night that he realized something was terribly wrong, he alleges in the lawsuit: he had “grotesque” burns on both his feet.

“He wound up with third-degree burns on his feet and was confined to his bed for weeks,” Dietl’s attorney, Dominick Gullo, says for the publication.

As the attorney sees it, it was Dr. Oz’s responsibility to issue proper warnings for those viewers who might want to consider the insomnia cure even though they had neuropathy.

“There were no proper instructions or proper warnings. There were no warnings to anybody with neuropathy to not try it,” Gullo explains.

“You do this and lie for about 20 minutes with those socks on in bed. The heat will divert blood to your feet,” was all Dr. Oz said on the show.

“When your feet get hot, guess what happens to your body? It gets cold. Your body will automatically adjust its core temperature and as it gets cooler, you’re going to be able to sleep better because your body has to be cold in order to get sleepy,” he added.

Dietl is suing for unspecified damages. The NY Daily News contacted a rep for Dr. Oz’s show, who said that they were yet to be served with papers. However, the publicist added, the show was educational and safe for viewers, regardless of the claims.