A HOSPITAL has apologised to the family of a pregnant mother-of-two after she and her baby died following serious errors with her care.

Basildon Hospital failed to follow guidelines or react properly after Reeta Saidha, 38, was admitted to the gynaecology emergency unit at Basildon Hospital after her waters broke 15 weeks into her pregnancy.

She later contracted sepsis and died.

Senior Essex Corner Caroline Beasley-Murray recorded a narrative verdict yesterday.

She concluded the couple should have been given the opportunity to terminate the pregnancy but was not due to “ineffective communication and lack of senior review”.

She added the sepsis diagnosis was “not communicated effectively to nursing or medical staff, or to the deceased or her family”.

Mrs Beasley-Murray said: “As a result of the ineffective communication, care was not escalated to senior or multi-disciplinary clinicians in accordance with the trust’s own guidelines and there was insufficient monitoring of her condition, resulting in a delay in controlling the intra-uterine source of infection, leading to severe sepsis, multi-organ failure and disseminated intravascular coagulation the following day.”

A lawyer for Basildon and Thurrock Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust told Mr Saidha they will send him an apology following the failings.

The inquest heard on December 19 she was admitted and told her baby was unlikely to survive.

She was told to wait 24 to 48 hours for her body to expel the foetus naturally.

After two days with no progress, Mrs Saidha, from Grays, Essex, became seriously ill and was diagnosed with sepsis on December 21.

The hospital then failed to follow guidelines and her condition worsened.

Poor communication between nurses and clinical staff was later blamed for the “insufficient monitoring” of Mrs Saidha’s deteriorating condition.

Handovers failed to make her status clear and “lacked robustness” according to the coroner who said there was “a missed window of opportunity to remove the cause of infection medically or surgically”.

The foetus was removed in surgery 18 hours after her sepsis diagnosis, by which point it was too late to save Mrs Saidha and she died on December 23 after going into septic shock.

Husband Bhooshan Saidha said: “I remain unconvinced that the trust has learnt from the situation and I do fear for patients in the future who are unfortunate enough to be at risk of sepsis.

“The loss of Reeta is so severe and significant.

“It’s difficult to come to terms with the fact that she could have been saved.”

The hospital is set to be sued by the family for the errors following the tragic loss of a beloved mother.