Samantha’s death was avoidable and her mother, Jane, wants to tell Samantha’s story to make women aware of the risk of thrombosis during and after pregnancy.
Samantha was a healthy 32 year old woman when she became pregnant with her third child. However, although she was healthy at the start of her pregnancy, there were risk factors that were not identified during her pre-natal and post-natal care. Samantha died from a pulmonary embolism on 16 March 2020, five weeks after the birth of her baby. She left two other children aged 9 and 5 and a family devastated by her death.
Samantha’s death was avoidable and as her mother, I want to tell her story to make women aware of the risk of thrombosis during and after pregnancy.
In her first three months of pregnancy, Samantha suffered from severe morning sickness which extended through the day and made it difficult for her to leave the house. As soon as the morning sickness improved, she started to suffer pelvic girdle pain. She had suffered from this late in her previous pregnancy but this time the pain started earlier in her pregnancy and was very debilitating. It became increasingly difficult for her to move.