Helen Davey tragically died earlier this year
A British mother-of-two died after a malfunctioning bed fell on her neck, a coroner has confirmed.
The BBC reports Helen Davey was found by her 19-year-old daughter Elizabeth Davey earlier this year on 7 June.
The 39-year-old was leaning over the storage area when the mattress platform on her Ottoman-style bed came down on her at her home in northeast England.
This style of bed comes with an ottoman mechanism that opens to reveal a storage space underneath the mattress and inside the frame.
Helen’s daughter Elizabeth said during a court proceeding in the case: “I went upstairs, my mam’s bedroom door was wide open and I saw her lying on her back with her head turned under the bed. Her legs were bent as if she was trying to get up.”
She continued: “I dropped everything that I was holding and tried to lift the top of the bed off her head. 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.”
Durham and Darlington senior coroner Jeremy Chipperfield said in her findings one of the bed’s two gas-lift pistons was ‘defective’, ultimately causing the ‘unexpected’ accident.
Chipperfield added the incident led to Helen “trapping her neck against the upper surface of the side panel of the bed’s base.”
The 4 October inquest declared Helen’s death as accidental after dying of ‘positional asphyxia’.
Chipperfield added in his report: “In my opinion there is a risk that future deaths could occur unless action is taken. In the circumstances it is my statutory duty to report to you.”
The coroner has since written to the UK government’s business secretary and the Office for Product Safety and Standards to voice his concerns for a future tragedy.
The Department for Business and Trade (DBT) told the BBC in a statement: “This is a horrible tragedy and we’d like to express our sympathy to Helen’s friends and family.
“We’re carefully considering the coroner’s report to understand the circumstances in this case and if there is anything we can do to prevent tragedies like this in the future we will respond fully before the deadline.”
The DBT have been informed they must set out a timetable of steps they will take to prevent similar incidents happening in the future.
