WOMAN KILLED BY SPECIAL BED
A British woman has died after a malfunctioning ottoman bed fell on her neck.
The 39-year-old’s cause of death was announced as asphyxiation in a coroner’s report.
The coroner, Jeremy Chipperfield, said the victim, Helen Davey died as she “was leaning over the storage area of an Ottoman-styled gas-lift bed”.
CNN reports that ottoman beds have a base that can be raised – usually using gas-lift hydraulics – to access a storage space underneath. They are a popular choice for householders wanting to keep bedding or unseasonal clothes out of sight.
According to the coroner’s report, the mattress platform on Davey’s bed fell unexpectedly, “trapping her neck against the upper surface of the side panel of the bed’s base”.
“Unable to free herself, she died of positional asphyxia. One of the two gas-lift pistons was defective.”
Unfortunately, this isn’t the first time that a British citizen has died from bed injuries. In the UK in 2022, a massive 147 people died after falling from a bed. Another 18 died by accidental suffocation or strangulation in bed.
Image credit: Adjustamatic Beds