Family take legal action after mum's sepsis death

Lorette Divers with her partner and two children

The family of a mother who died from sepsis are taking legal action against the NHS.

Lorette Divers, 30, was admitted to the Royal Hallamshire Hospital in Sheffield in November 2020 after suffering a miscarriage at 12 weeks and then developing an infection.

Her family said they "wanted answers" after an inquest concluded that hospital staff wrongly assumed Ms Divers' fatal symptoms were caused by Covid-19, which she had tested positive for.

Sheffield Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust has apologised for the failings in the mother-of-two's care and said changes had been made since her death.

'Gross failing'

Ms Divers, from Sheffield, went into hospital two days after her miscarriage, and was transferred to a gynaecology ward after complaining of stomach pain, vomiting and a high temperature.

An inquest held in 2022 was heard that a midwife was aware that a miscarriage could cause infection and thought Ms Divers should be seen by a doctor in case of sepsis.

However, Ms Divers was never assessed by a doctor and no blood samples were taken from her.

Coroner Tanyka Rawden said it was wrongly assumed that Ms Divers' temperature was a result of Covid-19.

She said: "Whilst it was not obvious that Lorette was suffering from sepsis, there was a gross failing in not ensuring she was reviewed by a doctor and in not taking blood samples for analysis and further investigation as to the cause of her pain, vomiting and temperature."

Following a surgical procedure related to her miscarriage, Ms Divers was found unresponsive and had to be resuscitated.

She died after suffering a cardiac arrest during emergency surgery.

The family of Lorette Divers has launched legal action against the hospital trust

Ms Divers' partner Jahred Smith and her mother Maxine Nicholson have now launched a civil case against the trust and voiced concerns that lessons had not been learned.

Ms Nicholson said her daughter had been a wonderful mum whose death had left a "huge void".

"It almost still doesn’t seem real that what should have been such a happy time ended so tragically," she said.

“I don’t think we’ll ever get over losing Lorette in the way we did."

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Ms Divers died at the Royal Hallamshire Hospital in Sheffield in 2020

The trust said it fully accepted and wholeheartedly apologised for the shortfalls in Ms Divers' care.

Chief medical officer Dr Jennifer Hill said: "Miss Divers was Covid-19 positive and was sadly suffering a miscarriage when she was admitted as an emergency in November 2020.

"The symptoms of these two conditions are similar and therefore unfortunately masked the rare and vigorous infection which led to her tragic death in November 2020."

Dr Hill said a full review into Ms Divers' care had been carried out and changes had been made to prevent "this situation occurring again".

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