Mum feared she'd die after she got trapped under her bed
A mum has told how she feared she'd die after she got trapped under her bed for 13 hours.
Claire Montello, 39, pulled up her hinged Ottoman style bed to grab her MP3 player from the under bed storage. The mum-of-three was reaching inside when the piston holding up the mattress failed - and the entire bed top crashed down on her arm.
She was trapped because she didn't have the strength in her one free arm to lift the bed up - and her phone was out of reach, and she feared she'd die.
Terrified Claire screamed and shouted to no avail and even had to lean on the bed - further compressing her arm - when her legs grew too tired to stand.
She was only set free when her husband Francesco, 61, came home from his night shift and lifted the bed up.
Claire from Grangewood, Chesterfield, said her arm was "flat as a pancake" but it then swelled up dramatically, before it "burst".
"I must have vomited about 40 times."
She spent two weeks in hospital where she endured four operations, and is waiting to see if she'll regain the use of her left arm.
Claire said: "I just can't believe it happened.
"I thought I was going to die. I had to keep making myself sick to keep the moisture in my mouth as a way to survive.
"I must have vomited about 40 times.
"Because the wardrobe was right next to the bed I couldn't even sit down.
"I knew Francesco wouldn't be back until the morning so I had no choice but to sit on the bed. I couldn't stand up for that long.
"I'm surprised I didn't pass out of the pain but I was and for the whole 13 hours."
Claire was rushed to Royal Derby hospital and was kept in for a two week stay and underwent four operations. Doctors performed a skin graft using skin from her thigh.
She had a muscle removed and doctors told her there is a 50:50 chance she will regain movement in her left arm, she said.
Claire said: "I'm now in absolute agony.
"I've got a splint on it and I can't feel anything.
"If that wasn't in there my arm would just be a floppy mess.
"I just want to warn people about buying these kinds of beds.
"They can be death traps. If it were a kid they'd be locked in there like a coffin."
