Woman killed by defective ottoman bed

London
CNN
—

A 39-year-old British woman was killed when a defective ottoman bed fell on her neck and suffocated her, a coroner's report says.

Helen Davey, who lived in northeast England and ran a beauty salon, died in June while “leaning over the shelf of an Ottoman-style gas lift bed,” coroner Jeremy Chipperfield said in his report published last week.

Ottoman beds feature a base that can be raised – usually using gas lift hydraulics – to access storage space underneath. They are a popular choice for households that want to store bedding or mismatched clothing out of sight.

The mattress platform on Davey's bed unexpectedly fell and “squashed her neck against the top of the side wall of the bed frame,” Chipperfield explained. “Unable to free herself, she died of positional asphyxia. One of the two gas lift pistons was defective.”

Davey was found by her daughter Elizabeth, according to a statement read out in court and reported by local newspaper The Northern Echo.

“I went upstairs, my mother's bedroom door was wide open and I saw her lying on her back with her head under the bed,” Elizabeth told the court.

“Her legs were bent as if she was trying to stand up. I dropped everything I was holding and tried to lift the top of the bed off her head. The bed no longer had a soft-close mechanism and could easily fall over when let go. It was so hard for me to pick it up and try to pull her out. I managed to raise it enough to use my foot for support.

“I noticed that her face was blue and there was a clear indentation on her neck from the frame. I managed to pull them out. I feared she was dead because she didn't make a sound. I started CPR and noticed she wasn't breathing,” she said.

Chipperfield warned in a letter to Britain's Business Secretary Jonathan Reynolds that there was a risk of future deaths “unless action is taken” and highlighted the “existence and use of gas piston bed mechanisms, the failure of which poses a threat to life” as a “concern.”

Under British law, coroners must report to the relevant organization or government agency if they believe action should be taken to prevent future deaths.