I've had these fail (in other applications) and when they do, they either lock in place at the extended position like you describe or can't hold the open position at all and the struts are limp and don't help at all. Like GRHooper describes I think you are experiencing the former and the only way to fix this is to remove the strut from its anchor points. Be careful because the bed might be heavy and might come crashing down when the strut is no longer holding up the weight.
I don't believe the bed struts use the locking mechanism or the release described by OldFogies, especially if you have never had to do this before. But I have seen both of those types.
My experience has been that once it has failed like this, it will fail again, so I'd recommend replacing it immediately or just not raising the bed. I don't know if it's required to replace them as pairs if there are two of them, but I usually don't unless they both don't seem to be working. I'll buy the second one but keep it as a spare if I don't need it.
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