A 39-year-old Englishwoman reportedly died this summer after a “defective” fold-out bed collapsed on her neck and suffocated her as she was looking inside its internal storage unit.
Back in June, Helen Davey (pictured above) of the city of Seaham died unexpectedly at her home — and her strange death was something of a mystery. A coroner’s inquest held late last week has concluded she was killed after a faulty gas-lift piston on a bed malfunctioned, causing it to collapse on top of her. Even worse, her daughter Elizabeth was the one who discovered her mother dead from asphyxiation and jammed underneath the bed. Just awful.
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Per the Northern Echo, local Seaham coroner Jeremy Chipperfield found during last week’s inquest that Helen’s tragic June death was caused by the sudden collapse of an Ottoman-style bed.
This type of bed uses hydraulics to raise the base and reveal a storage space below. It’s unclear what manufacturer made this specific bed, though, as the inquest report did not specifically name the company in question. But here are some examples:
Helen had opened the top half of the bed to search for something in a storage compartment below when a gas-lift piston malfunctioned and landed on top of her. Chipperfield’s Prevention of Future Deaths Report inquest found:
“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. Unable to free herself, she died of positional asphyxia. One of the two gas-lift pistons was defective.”
However, the worst part about the tragedy revealed at the inquest is that Elizabeth was the one who found her dead mother trapped within the bed. As reported by the Northern Echo, Elizabeth testified about what she remembered from that fateful June day:
“I went upstairs, my mam’s bedroom door was wide open, and I saw her lying on her back with her head under the bed. Her legs were bent as if she was trying to get up.”
At first, the bed was too heavy for Elizabeth to lift on her own. Eventually, planting her feet and using her legs for leverage, she managed to push the bed’s base off her mother’s neck. She recalled that her late mom’s face had already turned blue, and her neck was indented by the frame.
OMG…
Elizabeth’s testimony continued:
“I feared that she was dead as she made no sound. I started CPR and noticed that she wasn’t breathing.”
First responders rushed to the scene after Elizabeth’s discovery, but Helen was pronounced dead upon their arrival. Per the Guardian, Davey was a beautician in the area, and a mother of two.
Helen’s father Robert Casson also addressed the inquest court with his own statement:
“She was very independent, a strong individual with strong opinions and fiercely loyal. She was a loving mother to Elizabeth and George.”
As for the fallout regarding other beds like that, the coroner Chipperfield officially ruled Davey’s death as accidental and begged the Department for Business and Trade to take action to prevent further tragedies. Cryptically warning that accidents like this one could happen again “unless action is taken” Chipperfield testified:
“In my opinion action should be taken to prevent future deaths and I believe you have the power to take such action.”
No kidding. We send all of our condolences to Helen’s family — and most especially her daughter. What an awful situation.
[Image via Helen Davey/Instagram]
