Pregnant mum-of-two died of sepsis after she didn't have surgical termination

A pregnant mum-of-two who died from sepsis following a miscarriage wasn’t given the option of a surgical termination, an inquest has heard.

Reeta Saidha, 38, was just 15 weeks pregnant when she was admitted into hospital after her waters broke on December 19, 2017.

She was told to wait 24-48 hours for a natural miscarriage before doctors would consider a surgical removal. But Reeta developed sepsis and her condition worsened rapidly.

She was eventually rushed into surgery at Basildon Hospital to remove the baby on December 22 but died the following day.

The inquest in Chelmsford, Essex, heard that Reeta was “of good health” when she was first admitted but her symptoms grew to include low blood pressure, a high temperature, raised pulse rate and severe chest pains.

But her husband Booshan, 41, said he thought it was a side effect of labour.

He said he wasn’t told his wife had sepsis until 16 hours after it was initially diagnosed on December 21.

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“Sepsis was not mentioned to me once at this stage. Nothing.”, he told the inquest. “When she was transferred to ITU, that was the very first time that I was told.”

The inquest heard that medics had not discussed a surgical abortion with Reeta.

Senior doctor Shaheen Mannan said surgery to remove the baby at an earlier stage was too risky, especially as Reeta had previously had caesarean sections.

She said: “I told her that there was natural management and surgical management and discussed the risk of continuing without surgical termination.

“She said that she did not want a child with a poor outcome and she agreed to natural termination straight away.

“Surgical management at that time is extremely risky because she was not was only 15 weeks pregnant and we are not trained to do surgery at that time because the surgery is so advanced.

“I did not discuss the surgical management because I felt that it was not appropriate.”

Booshan told the inquest: “We thought that we were in the doctors hands and that this was all the way forward.

“She kept saying to me ‘I love you and I love the family’ and it was not normal, but I now know that one of the symptoms of sepsis is that you feel like you are going to die.

“My whole world has been flipped upside down now because of things that should have been done and I cannot see that these things were done.”