Mum-of-two Lorette Divers died two days after miscarriage after doctors failed to spot signs of sepsis

Lorette Divers, 30, was admitted to Royal Hallamshire Hospital in Sheffield in November 2020 after experiencing stomach pains and a high temperature following a miscarriage a few days earlier. She had been transferred to the gynaecology ward, where a nurse on duty considered the possibility that Ms Divers had developed sepsis and recommended a doctor’s assessment, but the 30-year-old went unassessed.

Ms Divers was resuscitated after she became unresponsive during a procedure to remove foetal material during an emergency surgery. However, only nine hours after she was admitted, the mum-of-two suffered a cardiac arrest and passed away.

It is believed that she developed sepsis as a result of her miscarriage after developing an infection. The Sheffield Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust has now admitted a breach of duty and apologised to her family.

Mr Diver’s mum Maxine said: “We still have concerns about what happened to Lorette and whether the hospital trust has actually learned from Lorette’s death. These concerns are compounded by the Care Quality Commission saying that services require improvement.

"It’s too late for Lorette but by speaking out we hope we can highlight the human cost of issues with care so others don’t have to go through what we have. Before Lorette’s death we’d heard of sepsis but had no idea how devastating it is. I wouldn’t wish the pain our family continues to experience on anyone."

She added: “Lorette was a truly wonderful mum and daughter whose death has left a huge void in all our lives. We were all overjoyed and excited when she told us she was expecting again.

"It almost still doesn’t seem real that what should have been such a happy time ended so tragically. I don’t think we’ll ever get over losing Lorette in the way we did.

"It’s hard to not feel angry that I’ve lost my beautiful daughter, Jahred his soulmate and the kids their amazing mum. We’ll always make sure that Lorette’s children will know about their mum, how much she loved them and how proud she was of them. But it’s not the same as having her in their lives."

Rosie Charlton, a specialist medical negligence lawyer at Irwin Mitchell working with Ms Divers’ family, said: "Maxine and Jahred continue to have a number of concerns about what happened to Lorette. All they want is to ensure is that the issues in Lorette’s care are identified and acknowledged by the trust, and that all lessons are learned so other families don’t have to endure what they have.

"We now call on the trust to work with us to resolve Lorette’s case as quickly as possible. While nothing will make up for what’s happened, Lorette’s loved ones deserve some form of closure from her harrowing death.

"Through our work we continue to see too many families affected by sepsis. Lorette’s death highlights its dangers, the need for everyone to be aware of the symptoms and how early detection and treatment is key to beating it."

Dr Jennifer Hill, medical director at the trust, said: "We cannot imagine the loss Miss Divers’ family and friends are still feeling since her death in 2020 and we would like to wholeheartedly apologise once again for the aspects of her care which should have been done differently.

"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 to and therefore unfortunately masked the rare and vigorous infection which led to her tragic death in November 2020.

"Regardless of this very unusual situation we fully accept that there were opportunities where we should have done things differently. We never want this to happen again and after carrying out a full review of Miss Divers’ care we have made changes to limit the chances of this situation occurring again."