Mom gave birth to beautiful twins – and died 48 hours later

A hospital trust admitted failures in care and sepsis after the death of a healthy teenage mother 48 hours after the birth of twins.

Sophie Burgess safely delivered a boy and a girl eight weeks earlier than expected, but could never be with her children after falling seriously ill with sepsis and the syndrome of HELLP, a pregnancy-related and life-threatening disease.

The family of this 19-year-old has filed a lawsuit against the Trust, which runs New Cross Hospital in Wolverhampton, following the death of the health care worker on March 13, 2015.

Lawyers Lanyon Bowdler, who represented the family against the Royal Wolverhampton NHS Hospital Trust, said that Miss Burgess' death had been avoided.

Although sepsis was diagnosed at 9:50 pm, Miss Burgess was not transferred to intensive care for more than three hours, the law firm said.

The Trust has now admitted and regretted the circumstances that led to the death of the young woman.

He added that lessons had been learned "to identify and manage sepsis as soon as possible".

Kay Kelly, the clinical negligence advocate representing the family, said, "She was only a 19-year-old, fit and healthy, 19-year-old woman.

"After receiving the instructions, we conducted a survey that revealed extremely poor care at many levels that could and should have been avoided.

"Three well-known medical experts have concluded that if she had been given appropriate care, had she been taken to ICU, administered with liquids, and monitored and sustained in intensive care, Sophie would probably have survived to lead a normal life because she was strong. "

She added, "She has developed sepsis – a real concern in our country right now, because we do not control it.

"She also had a nasty illness called HELLP, which looks like pre-eclampsia.

"But in my opinion, she had obvious symptoms of sepsis.

"What was really worrying was that no consultant took responsibility for her care, so the management was really bad.

"She should have had four different areas of expertise to examine her case.

"She should have had an obstetrician, an intensivist, a hematologist and an anesthesiologist.The anesthetist was allowed to go home in the middle of this incident.

"I think the staff was busy and no one recognized the seriousness of his condition."

After delivery, Miss Burgess of Telford, Shropshire, was initially transferred from her local hospital to New Cross due to a shortage of newborn beds.

In New Cross, she had the twins, Evie and Oliver, and although premature, the births went well.

She was then taken to the recovery room and initially appeared to be "well," said the family's attorney.

Ms. Kelly added, "She was dying to see the twins, who were then in neonatal care.

"It's sad because their father said he would not come back to see his children until Sophie could, they waited to go together.

"But then, her temperature went up, her pulse increased, and they worried about her, because she was at risk of developing an infection, gave her antibiotics.

"Her blood pressure went up and she got very sick.

"She never had a chance to see the twins.

"Her mother went to see the twins and brought a picture back to her daughter, which is really sad.

"The father of the twins stayed with her all the time and was with her during this terrible time."

Midwives have repeatedly tried to call on more experienced clinicians to badist Miss Burgess, but "no one has made any important decisions and has acknowledged her illness," Kelly said. .

"Her urine was not checked, they did not notice the increase in blood pressure, the blood tests were not taken and they were there. had been, they would almost certainly have expressed concerns that should have accelerated his treatment, "said the lawyer.

"The biggest problem is that she was very sick while she should have been in intensive care unit."

Ms Burgess was diagnosed with sepsis at 21:50, but the decision to transfer her to the USI was taken more than three hours later.

She did not really get to the intensive care unit until 2:30 am when she was "in shock," Kelly said, adding that record keeping had been "poor".

"Sophie should have been examined and transferred to 22:30 but instead, she just had a midwife who was watching her," said the lawyer.

"Even then, at the ICU, she had to wait for her to administer intravenous fluid and antibiotics – giving her the urgent treatment she needed – so she went into semi- arrest."

Ms. Kelly said, "This is another case of terrible sepsis.

"The family is obviously very angry and upset.

"It has been very difficult to look after children.

"Twins are hard to heal, especially when the family is completely upset."

Jonathan Odum, Medical Director of the Trust, said: "The Trust would once again like to offer its condolences and regrets for the circumstances that led to Sophie's death after the twins were born.

"The lessons learned from our survey have been shared within the Trust and continue to help us identify and manage sepsis as soon as possible."