A mother died when a faulty ottoman bed collapsed on her head in a horrific freak accident in her home in County Durham, an inquest heard.
Helen Davey, 39, from Seaham suffocated after her gas-lift bed descended and trapped her in between the mattress and the bed base.
Crook Coroners’ Court was told that her 19-year-old daughter, Elizabeth found her “lying on her back with her head under the bed”.
The court heard that one of the two gas pistons – which help raise the bed – was found to be defective.
Jeremy Chipperfield, senior coroner for Durham and Darlington, concluded her death was an accident.
He said: “I find that it’s likely that it [the bed] pushed her down, possibly forwards to start with. It is difficult to imagine how she ended up on her back. It may have been part of a struggle that took place while she was trying to get up.
“It is easy to see, I think, how being in that position, however, that arose, it would have been hard to stand up when she is on her back under a bed frame which I understand was quite heavy.”
In his report following the hearing, Chipperfield said: “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.
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“Unable to free herself, she died of positional asphyxia.”
Chipperfield has now written to the Government warning there is a risk of other deaths unless action is taken.
He said it was his duty to raise concerns with the Office for Product Standards at the Department for Business and Trade about “the existence and use of gas piston bed mechanisms whose failure presents risk to life,” the Daily Mail reports.
In a letter to Business Secretary Jonathan Reynolds and the Office for Product Safety and Standards, he said: “In my opinion action should be taken to prevent future deaths and I believe you have the power to take such action.”
Helen Davey, 39, from Seaham suffocated after her gas-lift bed descended and trapped her in between the mattress and the bed base
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A toxicologist found the 39-year-old had high levels of alcohol – almost four times the drink-drive limit – and prescription drugs in her system at the time of her death.
The court heard she had struggled with alcohol addiction.
Paying tribute, her dad Robert Casson told the court in a statement: “She was very independent, a strong individual with strong opinions and fiercely loyal.
“She was a loving mother to Elizabeth and George.”