Inquest: Mary Luz Aranda Lorono died after childbirth

Published: 11 February 2010
by JOSIE HINTON

AN investigation was launched into the death of a mother who suffered a massive brain haemorrhage while in labour at the Royal Free Hospital, a coroner’s inquest has heard.

Mary Luz Aranda Lorono, 35, was pregnant with her first child when she collapsed and began having a fit in October just hours after going into labour.

Doctors delivered a healthy baby girl but Ms Lorono, from Barnet, failed to recover from the “catastrophic bleed” in her brain and died a week later.

At first it was believed it was caused by the pregnancy complication pre-eclampsia – a rise in blood pressure – but this was questioned by the consultant in charge.

St Pancras Coroner’s Court heard on Thursday that doctors failed to  flag-up the case to the coroner and organs were wrongly donated before a post-mortem could be held.

The court also heard Ms Aranda’s blood pressure was not taken for more than three hours, despite being raised when she arrived at hospital. And her urine was not tested for protein – a symptom of pre-eclampsia – after her chart was misread.

In the absence of a  full post-mortem, a pathologist was unable to find the cause of the “spontaneous” haemorrhage, but Coroner Andrew Reid ruled out pre-eclampsia.

Recording a verdict of natural causes, he said that in most cases of spontaneous haemorrhage there was an abnormality in the brain functions.