Mary Agyapong: Covid nurse's colleagues to give inquest evidence

Ernest Boateng had concerns about the conditions at his wife's hospital, the review heard

Senior colleagues of a heavily pregnant nurse who died with Covid-19 after her baby was delivered will be asked to give evidence at her inquest.

Mary Agyeiwaa Agyapong, 28, died at Luton and Dunstable Hospital, where she worked, on 12 April.

A pre-inquest review heard her husband, Ernest Boateng, had concerns about the conditions at her workplace.

The hospital said it had not had any Covid patients before Ms Agyapong took maternity leave.

Bedfordshire and Luton Coroner's Court heard the mother of two had been admitted to hospital suffering from shortness of breath.

Mr Boateng said his wife was initially discharged on 5 April, which he was concerned about, before she was readmitted two days later with symptoms of the virus.

She had been 35 weeks pregnant.

Surgeons safely the delivered baby, also named Mary, by caesarean section before Ms Agyapong was transferred to the intensive care unit where she died.

The preliminary cause of death was given as pneumonia and Covid-19.

Mary Agyeiwaa Agyapong had worked at Luton and Dunstable Hospital for five years

Emma Whitting, senior coroner for Bedfordshire and Luton, said members of the hospital discharge team and Ms Agyapong's line manager or equivalent were likely to be required to give evidence at the inquest.

Mr Boateng previously said his wife, originally from Ghana, should not have been working at the hospital at the start of the pandemic as she had entered her third trimester.

Suzanne White, representing Mr Boateng, said: "Ernest Boateng has lost his partner and two small children have lost their mother.

"Hopefully any pressures that led to that working situation will be made clear and it will be fully understood if they had any bearing on Mary's death."

The hearing was adjourned.