English coroner issues warning over death of woman trapped in ottoman bed

A coroner has warned that gas piston ottomans could present a risk to life, after a woman died when her bed collapsed on her, trapping her between the mattress and the base.

Helen Davey, 39, a mother of two from Seaham in County Durham, died on 7 June when she suffocated after becoming accidentally trapped in the bed, an inquest heard.

Recording her death as accidental, Durham and Darlington’s senior coroner, Jeremy Chipperfield, wrote to ministers warning that future deaths might occur if preventive action was not taken.

Davey, a beautician who ran her business from her Seaham home, was found by her 19-year-old daughter, Elizabeth, neighbours told the MailOnline. She is also survived by an 11-year-old son, George.

“I went upstairs, my mam’s bedroom door was wide open, and I saw her lying on her back with her head under the bed,” Elizabeth said in a statement read to the inquest at Crook coroners court.

“Her legs were bent as if she was trying to get up. I dropped everything that I was holding and tried to lift the top of the bed off her head,” the statement, reported by the Northern Echo , continued.

“The bed was no longer a soft close and could fall heavily if it was released. It was so heavy for me to lift it up and try to pull her out. I managed to lift it up enough to use my foot to support it.

“I noticed that her face was blue with a clear indent on her neck from the frame. I managed to pull her clear. I feared that she was dead as she made no sound. I started CPR and noticed that she wasn’t breathing.”

An ambulance was called, but paramedics were unable to save her, and Davey was pronounced dead at the scene.

Police later attended and found that one of the two pistons, which make it easier to lift the bed, was defective.

“No words would ever describe how we are feeling,” Elizabeth, known as Betty, wrote on Facebook days after the accident. “I can’t even begin to process that it’s real and your (sic) not just going to walk through the door.

“Mine and George’s best friend from day one, I will always wish we had more time together and that you were still by our side supporting us through everything as always.

“I hope you know how much I love you and that I’d do anything for one more cuddle. Until we meet again my angel.”

“The deceased was leaning over the storage area of an ottoman-styled ‘gas-lift bed’ when the mattress platform descended unexpectedly, trapping her neck against the upper surface of the side panel of the bed’s base,” Chipperfield wrote in a prevention of future deaths report.

“Unable to free herself, she died of positional asphyxia. One of the two gas-lift pistons was defective,” he added.

In the report, copies of which were sent to the secretary of state for trade and business, and the Office for Product Safety and Standards, he warned that failure of gas piston mechanisms on such beds presented a risk to life.