Wolverhampton hospital’s ‘regret’ over new mum’s death
Image copyright Family handout A hospital trust says lessons have been learned in how to better identify and manage sepsis after a woman died hours after giving birth to twins.
The trust said it offered “regret for the circumstances” leading to Sophie Burgess’s death at New Cross Hospital in Wolverhampton.
Lawyers for the family claim there was a delay in transferring her to intensive care due to mismanagement of sepsis.
A negligence case is being pursued.
Ms Burgess, from Telford, Shropshire, died in March 2015 before seeing her babies. She was 19.
According to Kay Kelly, head of clinical negligence at legal firm Lanyon Bowdler, “opportunities were missed to provide Sophie with the urgent specialist treatment she needed”.
She said a “three-hour delay in transferring her to intensive care was due to a lack of leadership and management of the two conditions which led to her death – sepsis and HELLP syndrome”.
The latter is a life-threatening pregnancy complication and a variant of pre-eclampsia.
In a statement, the trust did not expand on the legal firm’s account but confirmed there had been an investigation.
Jonathan Odum, medical director, said: “The trust would once again like to offer our condolences and regret for the circumstances which led to the death of Sophie following the birth of the twins.
“The lessons identified from our investigation have been shared within the trust and continue to help us to identify and manage sepsis as early as possible.”
Ms Burgess’s mother, Mandy Burgess, said: “A lot of people assume that Sophie died in childbirth but we want people to know that she didn’t – she died because mistakes were made in that hospital.
“It happened four years ago but life isn’t getting any easier, it’s getting harder. The twins are four now and starting to understand that they don’t have a mum.”
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