A MOTHER has complained after her hospital bed collapsed - reportedly crushing her catheter stand - just hours after she underwent a major operation.

Julie Davies, 36, had a hysterectomy at Dorset County Hospital last month.

When she returned to the ward the hi-tech bed - designed to drop if patients go into shock - dropped accidentally, she said.

Mrs Davies from Milborne St Andrew said: "The bottom end of the bed had collapsed, it shouldn't happen on its own.

"It hurt. If it had been just a little bit further it could have pulled the tube out of me.

"My main concern is if you have got a critically ill patient and it happened to them."

The bed fell further later on in the day giving her another nasty jolt, she said.

Due to a ruptured muscle Mrs Davies was re-admitted to the Dorchester hospital last week.

"I was so petrified of going back on one of those beds I was put in a treatment room," she said. Mrs Davies praised the care she received - with the exception of one nurse who "walked away" from her at the time of the first collapse.

But the full-time carer of her disabled husband Michael and mother-of-one has complained about the bed.

And although she has asked for the name of the bed manufacturer, that has not been divulged.

"I feel the manufacturers should be told - if it was my company I'd want to know," she said.

Fellow patient Ann Clark from Weymouth said: "There was this very loud noise. I woke up with such a start.

"Julie was moaning and I thought something terrible had happened.

"After that sort of operation you don't want any sudden jolts.

"I heard it happen again - it is quite upsetting to think it could happen twice.

"I had the same sort of bed as Julie and it could have been me - it was most distressing."

Janet Biles, personal assistant to the hospital's chief executive, said the matter was being fully investigated.

First published: November 3, 2005