New fear unlocked: Bizarre deaths caused by furniture – after woman is killed by her ottoman bed

From beds, dressers, reclining chairs and treadmills, the modern home is filled with comforting conveniences that could also be the source of an untimely demise. 

Such fatalities have been thrown into the spotlight following the death of mother-of-two Helen Davey, who died in a freak accident with her Ottoman bed.

An inquest recently heard how the 39-year-old suffocated when she became trapped between the mattress and the bed base due to a defective gas piston. 

This piston failure caused the mattress to descend unexpectedly as the beautician was leaning over the storage area underneath, trapping her neck.

The incident, which occurred in June, isn’t an isolated one and dozens of similar deaths from seemingly harmless household objects have been recorded in the past.

Falling dressers, bookshelves and other objects  

Numerous fatalities have been reported of people, manly children due to their smaller size, dying from having insecure pieces of furniture fall on them. 

Such incidents can kill people directly due to the trauma of the falling object or suffocating them due to the weight of the furniture on their chest and lungs. 

One such death as recorded in Australia in 2016 when three-year-old Blake Shaw was killed by falling bookshelf. 

His devastated parents, Tim Shaw and Kirstie Rogers, said they had discovered their son’s lifeless body after hearing a loud bang. 

‘We got the cabinet up to the top. Blake was right in the bottom corner, just curled up. He was gone by then,’ Mr Shaw said.

Another similar death, was that of 22-month year old Reef Quartermaine, who was crushed by dresser in 2015. 

His mother Skye, said at the time: ‘I would move mountains to be able to touch him again, just for a second.’ 

Such deaths are rare and tragic, only 10 cases of children dying from ‘falling objects’ were recorded in England between 2019 and 2022 according to research project the National Child Mortality Database.

However, serious incidents are far more common.

Some 1,500 emergency NHS admissions for Brits being ‘caught, crushed, jammed or pinched in or between objects’ at home were recorded last year, according to official data. 

These were mostly among children and the elderly, who are at similar risk due to their general frailty and lack of strength to escape such situations unaided.  

Reclining chairs and fridges

In a similar incident to Davey’s, a man was crushed by a motorised reclining chair in 2018. 

Ateeq Rafiq, 24, was trying to find his phone and keys after watching a film at Star City in Aston, Birmingham.

Suspecting they had fallen beneath the seat he stuck his head underneath the raised footrest of the seat.

While there it then proceeded to close trapping the father of one and putting 118 stones of pressure on his neck, choking him. 

He was stuck there for 15 minutes as his wife and staff battled to free him. 

Eventually cinema workers finally managed to remove the bolts from the chair and dragged his body out, but the father-of-one suffered a heart attack triggered by a lack of oxygen to the brain. 

He was rushed to hospital but died a week later from ‘catastrophic’ injuries. 

It was later discovered that parts of the footrest mechanism had been ‘fitted incorrectly’ and was never tested. 

A reclining chair also claimed the life of  five-year-old Christian Shelton who was killed after getting wedged between a chair and a couch while playing with his twin brother.

The accident, which occurred in 2013, saw the young boy neck and chest become trapped between the recliner part of the chair and an adjacent couch. 

His twin, Griffin, desperately tried to save Christian but was unable to move the recliner part of the chair back into the sitting position. 

Christian’s death was ruled an accident resulting from compression asphyxiation. 

There have also been isolated reports that fridges could also suffocate children.

Older designed models are unable to be opened from the inside and in rare cases curious children have become trapped in them.

Two children Kyrgyzstan, aged six and four, suffered the grisly fate in 2019, suffocating inside the airtight device after climbing inside a fridge. 

Fires caused by faulty appliances 

As energy prices go up many Brits are opting to set appliances to run overnight during off-peak periods in a bid to cut down their bills. 

But occasional faults in devices like tumble dryers, can result in potentially deadly incidents.

One such death occurred in 2016 when mother-of-two Mishell Moloney was killed following carbon monoxide exposure as result of a faulty tumble dryer.

A fire had started in the appliance in the early hours while Moloney was, presumably sleeping. 

She was found not breathing, under a duvet next to her bed, and despite paramedics’ best efforts she was unable to be resuscitated. 

Post-mortem tests revealed that she had died as a result of carbon monoxide poisoning and smoke inhalation.

Moloney’s death was part of a dozen or so that occurred due to appliances with potential faults leading to fires or carbon monoxide poisoning. 

A Which? investigation in 2015 found that 12,000 fires were caused by faulty home products between 2011 and March 2014, with washing machines and tumble dryers the two worst appliances, responsible for over a quarter of all fires. 

Beware the killer treadmill 

An at-home gym, including equipment such as treadmill or exercise bike is often the only way time-poor Brits get their recommended daily exercise.

While such efforts could help you live longer, freak accidents with exercise equipment have led some to an early grave. 

One of the most shocking examples occurred earlier this year in Indonesia when a young woman, only identified by the initials FN, was flung from a treadmill out of the third-floor window. 

Horrifying footage shows the 22-year-old attempting to grab on to the window frame before disappearing out of sight as she falls through.

She was rushed to hospital with serious head injuries, but doctors were unable to save her life, according to local media reports. 

Investigations revealed the treadmill she was using was only about 2ft (60cm) from the window, a positioning police described as ‘dangerous’. 

Another such accident took the life of Delrie Rosario, 39, who died after suffering a head injury after slipping and falling off a treadmill.

The Washington-state native took a bad step on the treadmill, slipping forward and smashing her head into the front of the machine, causing her to slump over and then be tossed off by the still running equipment. 

Not uncommon danger of baths and showers 

For many Brits a hot bath or shower is one of those simple daily pleasures that can alleviate some of the stress of a busy day.

However, they can unfortunately turn tragic in some bizarre circumstances. 

Several people have been killed after a fault or accident led them to be blasted with scalding hot water from a shower or bath, they believed safe.

Such injuries can be particularly dangerous as when unexpectedly scorched with hot water a victim can fall from the sudden pain causing them to be further scalded in the shower or bath as they struggle to escape.

A number of such incidents have been recorded in British hotels.

One such case was Wallace Hunter, 75, from Eaglesham, East Renfrewshire, who suffered catastrophic injuries after being trapped in a scalding hot bath at the Pitlochry Hydro Hotel in Perthshire.

Emergency services tried to smash down the door to save him but were hampered by the fact it opened outwards and was bolted from the inside. 

Mr Hunter suffered third-degree burns to 83 per cent of his body during the incident in December 2019.

Another case was grandmother Kalyani Uthaman, 59, who died after suffering burns to 25 per cent of her body in the incident at a Premier Inn in Newcraighall, Edinburgh

She was found slumped in the bath by her daughter-in-law and spent six weeks in intensive care but died of multiple organ failure.