A mother who had just given birth in the Mid and South Essex Hospitals Trust died after bleeding uncontrollably, and a coroner is in court accusing the hospital of negligence.
Laura Jane Seaman was 36 years old when she gave birth to her fifth child, and is said to have begged hospital staff not to let her die when she experienced a sense of doom and felt she was bleeding abnormally. Shortly after she pleaded for help, the woman was given cookies but passed out and was treated as if she had merely fainted, according to court testimony.
Seaman had a history of hemorrhaging, which apparently was known to hospital staff. A few days later she was dead. The inquest examining her death is being held at the Essex Coroner’s Court in Chelmsford. Coroner Sonia Hayes testified that Seaman came to the hospital just after 11 pm in December of 2023 and gave birth normally without any apparent complications. She was observed over the next day and medical staff did not believe there was anything wrong with her.
But after a few hours, Seaman told medicos she could feel that she was bleeding, which she described as “gushing.” She said to doctors, “please don’t let me die.” Seaman also reported feeling a “sense of doom” and dizziness, but this apparently did not motivate staff to examine her more thoroughly or with any urgency.
Coroner Hayes said staff should have been monitoring her vital signs, and if they had, it would have been obvious that something was wrong. Hayes said there were multiple “missed opportunities” for medical intervention that would have saved the mother’s life.
When Seaman was found to be unresponsive, staff apparently concluded that she had just “fainted.” Hayes said it’s rare for anyone to pass out while lying down in bed; her unconsciousness should have alerted doctors and nurses that something serious had gone awry. Unbelievably, Seaman was unconscious for three hours, which is far outside the definition of a mere fainting spell.
All of this indicated something drastic was wrong, said the coroner, and staff should have given her an emergency review. Instead, she alleged, they simply assumed she had fainted and did nothing to figure out the cause or come to a diagnosis.
Hayes found that Seaman had been bleeding for several hours, and if anyone had listened to her or started investigating, her death would have been easily preventable.
The hospital trust issued a bland statement of condolence to Seaman’s family and said they would take the coroner’s report into consideration.
