A MOTHER was found dead after suffering from blood clots to her lungs, just over a fortnight after her daughter was delivered by caesarean section.

Marie Tompkins, 36, who gave birth to Poppy on March 13, later complained of swollen legs, in the days before her death, and pains in her side, back and chest after discharging herself from hospital, a Coroner’s Court was told.

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But she told her partner Michael Hardman that he should go to work, on March 31, as she had been checked out by her GP and thought she was going to be fine, an inquest heard.

Mr Hardman, who had been in a relationship with her for 14 years, received a call later that day and returned to her home in York Avenue, Haslingden, to be informed by a police officer that she had died.

He told the inquest: “I just said that she couldn’t die - she has just had a baby.

“You don’t go to work expecting your girlfriend to die.”

Mr Hardman insisted that blood clots had not been mentioned as a possible problem and he believed her swollen legs were due to water retention.

Before he left, he said she had a better night’s sleep than previously and he had made her a cup of tea.

He knew that the district nurse was due to visit at 9.30am to change her dressings and deal with a catheter she had been fitted with.

The inquest heard that district nurse Nora Anderson had called on Miss Tompkins, but when she saw her curtains drawn, she assumed she may have had “an unsettled night” with her baby and decided to return later. Poppy was in fact still in the neo-natal intensive care unit.

She later called the house, on return to her office, and received no reply, the court was told.

Questioned by Vicky Tompkins, on behalf of the family, Mrs Anderson said there had been at least three failed visits, where Miss Tompkins had been out when colleagues called.

Her notes also indicated that she had been regularly visiting her baby in the neo-natal intensive care unit at Burnley General Hospital.

She added: “We cannot escalate (the situation) if a person has been going out.”

Dr Steven Mills, a consultant pathologist who conducted the post-mortem examination on Miss Tompkins, said that the cause of her death was pulmonary embolisms, or blood clots on the lungs, which had followed the caesarean section, brought on in turn by pre-eclampsia.

He said that it could typically take between 10 and 14 days for blood clots, which could be formed while patients are immobile after surgery, to develop in the legs and spread to the lungs.

The inquest heard that Miss Tompkins suffered a tear to her bladder, during the caesarean section, which required further surgery at the Royal Blackburn Hospital later.

This would have been classified as a much more minor procedure than the original surgery, according to Dr Mills.

Dr Elizabeth Price, a junior registrar who performed the caesarean, said she did not appreciate at first she had caused the bladder injury.

She apologised to Miss Tompkins when she saw her informally and was assured that there was no ill-feeling regarding the situation, the inquest heard.

Another junior registrar, Dr Lisa Barnes, said she was drafted in when it became apparent Miss Tompkins wanted to discharge herself, in an attempt to discourage her.

Medics wanted to stabilise the patient’s blood pressure and she had just been started her on a new course of medication to achieve this, but Miss Tompkins was adamant that she wanted to go home and care for her other daughter, Grace.

“I told her that if she had a stroke then she would not be around her for children,” said Dr Riley, who accepted she “totally empathised” with her desire to return home.

Miss Tompkins would remain under the care of community nurses and her GP and had gone for check-ups at the Burnley Women and Newborns Centre while visiting baby Poppy, the inquest heard.

The inquest is scheduled to continue today.