36-Year-Old Mother Begged Medical Staff to ‘Not Let Me Die’ but Died After Birth of Fifth Child Due to ‘Basic Failures,’ Report Says

The coroner’s report states that Laura-Jane Seaman, 36, passed away as a result of “multiple missed opportunities” to treat a peritoneal hemorrhage.

According to a coroner’s report, a mother passed away soon after giving birth to her fifth child because hospital staff neglected to “appropriately escalate” signs of a peritoneal hemorrhage.

Following her baby’s “uneventful” vaginal birth at Broomfield Hospital in Essex, U.K., on December 21, 2022, Laura-Jane Seaman, 36, was nursing in her hospital bed with plans to return home, according to the BBC.

The mother from Witham, England, which is about 50 miles northeast of London, started feeling ill two hours later, though, and asked the hospital staff, “Am I bleeding?”

According to a coroner’s report on December 13, 2024, she died two days after giving birth from a “massive peritoneal hemorrhage” as a result of “basic failures” to escalate her concerns.

According to the BBC, Seaman pleaded with staff to “not let me die” and told them she was “gushing” before she passed away.

Her complaints of numbness in her limbs and dizziness were attributed to dehydration. But she kept getting worse, and when she passed out, they only gave her a cookie.

The BBC reported that although The Mid and South Essex NHS Foundation Trust, which was responsible for Seaman’s care, had known she was at high risk of severe bleeding after giving birth, the staff classified her subsequent fall as a “faint” rather than referring her to the critical care team.

According to the coroner’s report, “there were multiple missed opportunities to escalate and treat” Seaman.

According to the report, her severe bleeding went unnoticed because her abdomen was not examined, and the results of a blood test that would have raised suspicions about a drop in her hemoglobin were not followed up on.

According to a previous BBC report, the seamen bled for hours before having emergency surgery, which revealed four to five liters of blood in her abdomen.

Following complications from the intra-abdominal hemorrhage, she passed away on December 23, 2022.

The outlet was told by the seaman’s family “We implore everyone caring for Laura-Jane to consider the shortcomings of her care. Being a mother brought her more happiness than anything else. She always aspired to be that, and she excelled at it.

The coroner’s review will guide the Mid and South Essex NHS Foundation Trust’s efforts to enhance the Trust’s maternity services, the Trust told Etonightdaily

By February 7, 2025, they will have a timeline of actions in response to the Coroner’s Prevention Of report.

Diane Sarkar, the Chief Nursing and Quality Officer for the Mid and South Essex NHS Foundation Trust, expressed her deepest sympathies and condolences to Laura-Jane’sfamily.

“Her untimely passing has had a profound impact on all of us at the Trust,” she added. “Our focus has been on improving training in recognizing the early signs of deterioration and escalation routes in our maternity services to prevent this from happening again, following investigations into the circumstances that led to her death.”