Thanks for both responses. It turns out my wife's laptop is still
covered by onsite complete care. A technician came less than 24 hours
after she called and was able to remove the battery after taking the
keyboard out. No free replacement, though, since the battery is only
covered for one year. I'm pretty sure we checked the recall list a
year or so ago, and it wasn't listed.

Thanks again for the advice to get someone qualified to take a look
at it.

Dan