Marie Stopes '˜failures' over mother's death

Dr Sean Cummings said the case involving Aisha Chithira, 31, who travelled to England from Ireland to have a termination at a Marie Stopes clinic in Ealing, was “desperately sad”.

West London Coroner’s Court heard Ms Chithira died in January 2012 following a late-stage abortion after being discharged from the west London clinic despite vomiting and feeling dizzy, and displaying symptoms that “were not appreciated as potentially sinister”.

She suffered a tear to her uterus during the “blind” procedure performed under anaesthetic, as a surgeon struggled to remove a 22-week-old foetus from a womb that had not fully dilated.

Afterwards she vomited and complained of feeling unwell to her husband, but was helped into a taxi to a cousin’s home in Slough by staff who had told her she could not stay overnight. Later that night the mother suffered catastrophic internal bleeding of around two litres and died.

Dr Adedayo Adedeji, who performed the procedure, and nurses Gemma Pullen and Margaret Miller were charged with manslaughter by gross negligence and a health and safety breach but the case was dropped in 2016.

Recording a narrative verdict, acting senior coroner for west London Dr Cummings said the case had been “catastrophic” for all those concerned.

After the procedure Ms Chithira had “light bleeding”, complained of feeling hot, thirsty and dizzy and fell to the floor, staff at the clinic reported.

However, observations taken by a nurse showed her blood pressure and pulse were normal and doctors told the court her symptoms were “atypical” or “unlucky”.

This meant her position was “difficult to diagnose and consequently the severity was missed”, the coroner concluded.

He said: “Her death resulted from the manifestation of a recognised complication of the procedure resulting in sometimes subtle and atypical symptoms and signs which were not appreciated as potentially sinister at the time.

“There were repeated failures of recording of observations by different clinicians involved in her care.”

Ms Chithira, who was from Malawi but settled in the Republic of Ireland, had a history of non-cancerous growths around the womb called fibroids which made the procedure more complex.

She had decided to have an abortion after miscarrying twins at 30 weeks and then having her baby girl delivered by C-section, making her worry that childbirth was too much of a risk.

Ms Chithira’s husband Ryan said that his loss was “compounded by the torturous process that has seen my wife’s case dragged through the courts over the past six years”.