A coroner has warned that gas piston ottoman beds could present a risk to life after a mother of two died when her bed collapsed on her, trapping her neck. Helen Davey, 39, from Seaham, County Durham, was found dead at her home on 7 June, an inquest heard.
Ms Davey, a beautician who ran her business from her home, was discovered by her 19-year-old daughter, Elizabeth. In a statement read to the inquest at Crook coroners court, Elizabeth described finding her mother lying on her back with her head under the bed, her legs bent as if she had been trying to get up.
She said she tried to lift the bed off her mother's head, noting that the bed was no longer soft-close and could fall heavily if released. She managed to lift it enough to use her foot as support, and saw that her mother's face was blue with a clear indent on her neck from the frame. She pulled her clear and started CPR, but paramedics were unable to save Ms Davey, who was pronounced dead at the scene.
Police later attended and found that one of the two gas-lift pistons, which make it easier to lift the bed, was defective. Durham and Darlington's senior coroner, Jeremy Chipperfield, recorded Ms Davey's death as accidental and wrote a prevention of future deaths report, warning that failure of such mechanisms presented a risk to life.
The report, sent to the secretary of state for trade and business and the Office for Product Safety and Standards, stated that Ms Davey had been leaning over the storage area of the ottoman-style bed when the mattress platform descended unexpectedly, trapping her neck and causing positional asphyxia. A Department for Business and Trade spokesperson expressed sympathy for Ms Davey's family and said the report was being carefully considered.
