Oh man, aren't you glad that the bed didn't fail while you were still recuperating from your surgery?

When I was growing up, my bed was antique and we didn't have the crazy rope system to support the mattress (you know, "good night, sleep tight" is more than just an expression!), so we put wooden slats along the bottom where someone a generation or so back had put rails in. That worked pretty well, except when the slats moved a bit and would fall out with alarming noise at 2am.