Rosie Hospital says sorry after woman died following birth
BBCA hospital has apologised following the death of a speech and language therapist shortly after she gave birth.
Claire Morton, 31, was incorrectly assessed as low-risk before she gave birth at the Rosie Hospital in Cambridge, in April 2019.
There was an "omission" by a midwife around blood pressure, which would have raised concern, an inquest heard.
The hospital trust said it had apologised "unreservedly" to Mrs Morton's family.
The inquest at Peterborough Town Hall last week heard Mrs Morton, from Cambridge, gave birth to her daughter on 11 April 2019.
David Heming, senior coroner for Cambridgeshire and Peterborough, said that shortly after her admission, Mrs Morton's blood pressure was elevated, but was not compared to a reading taken earlier on during her pregnancy.
"The moderate hypertension was not recognised," he said.
Blood pressure 'elevated'
Mr Heming said there was no Modified Early Warning Score (MEWS) calculated, which if done on the "known observations... would have prompted an obstetric and anaesthetic review at that time".
He said there were no further recorded blood pressure readings until that evening, when they were "markedly elevated".
"On the low-risk pregnancy pathway, there was a requirement to monitor blood pressure every four hours but this was not effected," he said.
The inquest was told Mrs Morton complained of a "bad headache" and later had a series of seizures.
She died the following day, having "suffered an unsurvivable intracerebral haemorrhage due to eclampsia in pregnancy and HELLP syndrome (a rare liver and blood clotting disorder)".
In a narrative conclusion published on Monday, Mr Heming said: "[Mrs Morton] died from complications of pregnancy where there was a delay in the commencement of an anti-hypertensive and magnesium sulphate treatment regimen, where neither enhanced observations nor obstetric review had been triggered as the likely emergent signs of pre-eclampsia had not been diagnosed."
Mrs Morton's husband, Andrew, said she had previously worked for Cambridge University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust (CUH) and had "dedicated her whole career to speech and language therapy and helping people".
Mr Heming said she was "quite a remarkable lady" and that her family were "some of the most remarkable people to come across".
Lorraine Szeremeta, CUH chief nurse, said: "On behalf of the trust, I would like to apologise unreservedly to Claire's family following her death while in our care.
"In response to this incident, the trust promptly initiated a comprehensive review of Claire's care, taking immediate steps to strengthen existing processes.
"This included improvements to training and education programmes for maternity staff and building in additional safety checks to ensure improved communication."
