Two year old boy found unconscious while hanging from parent's bed in freak accident

A two year old boy, Buddy George, from Kirk Hallam, Derbyshire was found unconscious and blue in the face by his mum while hanging from his parent's bed in a freak accident. The toddler had been playing in his parents room and somehow managed to get his neck stuck in their hydraulic "Ottoman-type" bed while his mum was in the bathroom.


His 30 year old terrified mum Charlotte Hames, who left him playing realized he was quiet and called out his name but got no response, so she ran to their bedroom and saw him hanging from the bed and desperately tried to revive him before calling 999 on Monday night.

The mum said:
"I was in the bathroom and thought Buddy had gone quiet so I shouted up to him but got no response. "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."
Buddy's father Anthony Ancliff added:
"Charlotte grabbed Buddy and rushed him next door to my uncle's house where they called an ambulance and started trying to revive him.
"Charlotte called me at work saying Buddy had hung himself and wasn't breathing. She was so hysterical I couldn't make out what she was trying to say so I just got off the phone and drove to the hospital in a blind panic."
He was rushed to Queen's Medical Centre in Nottingham by paramedics and kept overnight to make sure he was fine before being allowed home, where he is making a full recovery.

The couple, who also have another son, four-year-old Jesse James, and a daughter of 11 months, Primrose, are now warning parents about the beds, which have bases that hinge upwards to reveal a storage space inside.

Mr Antcliff said:
"Our children mean everything to us and we couldn't imagine carrying on if anything had happened to Buddy. "That's why we want to warn other parents about the potential danger caused by these lifting loops and remove them - don't take the chance. "We don't want anyone else to go through what we've been through this week."

Councillor Dave Allen, cabinet member for health and communities, said:
"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."

Two year old boy found unconscious while hanging from parent's bed in freak accident