A police officer who collapsed in a hospital toilet while in labour with twins died of natural causes, a coroner has ruled.
Pc Sarah Underhill, 37, died on 5 October last year at the John Radcliffe Hospital, Oxford, after amniotic fluid from the womb entered her blood stream.
Pathologist Sebastian Lucas said her condition was "unpreventable".
Mrs Underhill's husband Richard had said doctors should have performed a Caesarean section sooner.
In summing up the case, Oxfordshire Coroner Nicholas Gardiner said: "The twins were successfully delivered but sadly [Mrs Underhill] went into a cardiac arrest from which she could not be retrieved."
'Sadly missed'
In a statement, Mrs Underhill's husband Richard thanked the coroner as well as staff at the John Radcliffe Hospital.
He described his wife as "a devoted daughter, caring sister and beautiful wife.
 Richard Underhill said he and his wife had been "desperate" to have children |
"It is truly heartbreaking that she will not go on to become the wonderful mother she would have been," he said. "She will be sadly missed."
Mr Underhill, 39, now cares for six-month-old twins Hannah and James at their home in Didcot, Oxfordshire.
"This was a very sad and distressing case," said Gill Walton, head of midwifery at Oxford Radcliffe Hospitals Trust
"Maternal deaths are rare in this country and this particular condition is exceptionally rare.
"Our thoughts are with Mrs Underhill's family and their twins."
Professor Andrew Shennan, who reviewed the case for the trust, said Mrs Underhill had died from causes unrelated to the pre-eclampsia for which she had been admitted.
"If she had not been an inpatient at the time of her collapse, it is likely that the babies would have died," he said.
0 comments:
Post a Comment