Delay and confusion led to woman's death in labour

Rana Abdelkarim died at Gloucestershire Royal Hospital in March 2021 after suffering a bleed post-birth.

The Healthcare Safety Investigation Branch (HSIB) found there were delays in calling for specialist help.

Her husband, Modar Mohammednour, said that in March 2021 his wife attended the maternity unit at 39 weeks into her pregnancy for what she thought was a routine check-up.

Mr Mohammednour said due to language barriers his wife thought she was going "for a scan and to check on her health" and then "come back home", but in fact she was being sent to be induced.

"Immediately" after the labour, Ms Abdelkarim suffered heavy bleeding and her condition deteriorated - something Mr Mohammednour said he was "unaware of", until he was eventually called into the hospital to speak to a doctor.

According to the investigation by the HSIB, the obstetric team of senior doctors were not told about the drastic change in her condition for almost 30 minutes.

An investigation into her death by the HSIB found that once Ms Abdelkarim had been given a drip to speed up labour, regular support from midwives and assessments could not be given to her because the maternity ward was so busy.

It also found there was a 53-minute delay from the point of bleeding to administering the first blood transfusion.

HSIB also found Ms Abdelkarim was "uninformed" about the reason for her admission, "consent to induce labour was not given" and because she was thin and small, staff underestimated how much relative blood volume she was losing.

Read full story

Source: BBC News, 7 February 2023