Mum warns of choking dangers of an Ottoman storage bed
Charlotte Hames' 2-year-old stopped breathing after his neck was caught in the lifting loop of the hydraulic bed
A mum is warning parents about the potential dangers of Ottoman storage beds after she found her son ‘blue in the face’ and hanging by his neck from the bed’s lifting loop.
Increasingly popular, Ottoman beds have storage underneath, which you access by lifting up the mattress and frame underneath.
Two-year-old Buddy caught his neck in his parent’s hydraulic “Ottoman-type” bed while playing in their room and was not breathing when mum, Charlotte Hames, found him.
Luckily Charlotte found him in time and Buddy was revived by paramedics and only had to spend one night in hospital.
He has now made a full recovery, but the mum from Derbyshire wanted to share her story in the hope that it will avoid the terrifying accident from happening again.
This is what happened: Buddy was playing in his parents room (where the bed was in the normal closed position) while mum Charlotte was in the bathroom. Charlotte called for Buddy but got no response. So she ran into her bedroom and found Buddy hanging from the bed’s lifting loop.
Charlotte explains: "I had a gut instinct something was wrong so rushed to our bedroom where he'd been playing and found him hanging by his neck from the bed's lifting loop. He was blue in the face and not breathing - I was frantic," she told the Daily Telegraph.
The mum-of-three then rushed Buddy to her uncle’s house next door where they called an ambulance and started trying to revive him.
The accident is being investigated by Derbyshire County Council’s Trading Standards team. The team are speaking to the Bed Federation about suspending "the supply of similar products currently available" and having these type of beds modified to remove the loop.
Councillor Dave Allen, cabinet member for health and communities, says: "It appears Buddy had managed to trigger the lifting process but his slight weight was not enough to prevent the mattress continuing to rise when his neck got caught in the lifting loop and he was pulled upwards.
"The strap effectively created a ligature that lifted him off his feet and it is only the fact that his mother found him in time that we are not dealing with a terrible tragedy."
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Authors
Having been a journalist for 15 years – and Reviews Editor at MadeForMums for five of those – Hazelann has accrued a lot of experience testing and reviewing every baby product imaginable.
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