A malfunctioning ottoman mattress fell on a British lady, trapping her neck towards the facet of the mattress and asphyxiating her, based on a coroner’s report obtained by USA TODAY on Monday.
Helen Davey, 39, was killed at her house within the harbor city of Seaham in June when a faulty piston in a gas-lift ottoman mattress prompted the mattress to fall, Jeremy Chipperfield, senior coroner for Durham and Darlington in northeastern England, mentioned in a report.
“The deceased was leaning over the storage space of an ottoman-styled ‘gas-lift mattress’ when the mattress platform descended unexpectedly, trapping her neck towards the higher floor of the facet panel of the mattress’s base,” he wrote. “Unable to free herself, she died of positional asphyxia. One of many two gas-lift pistons was faulty.”
Chipperfield dominated the demise as unintentional.
Helen Davey described as ‘fiercely loyal’ loving mom
The Northern Echo, a newspaper based mostly within the north of England, reported that the mom of two was discovered by her daughter Elizabeth after getting back from a hair appointment.
“I went upstairs, my mam’s bed room door was huge open, and I noticed her mendacity on her again together with her head beneath the mattress,” Elizabeth mentioned in an announcement learn in Criminal County Coroner’s Courtroom, based on the Echo. “I dropped every little thing that I used to be holding and tried to raise the highest of the mattress off her head.”
Paramedics tried to revive Davey however declared her useless on the scene.
Davey’s dad, Robert Casson, informed the courtroom that his daughter was “very unbiased, a powerful particular person with robust opinions and fiercely loyal,” based on the Echo.
“She was a loving mom,” he mentioned.
Coroner warns of gasoline raise beds
Chipperfield warned of the potential risks of ottoman beds that use gasoline lifts within the report back to the Secretary of State for Enterprise and Commerce, and the Workplace for Product Security and Requirements.
“In my view motion must be taken to stop future deaths and I consider you’ve gotten the facility to take such motion,” Chipperfield wrote.
Ottoman beds have a platform that lifts the mattress to permit for storage beneath.
The Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents informed CNN that 18 individuals died by unintentional suffocation or strangulation in mattress in the UK in 2022.