Bradford woman had baby despite weak heart (From Bradford Telegraph and Argus)

Bradford woman had baby despite weak heart

10:10am Saturday 4th August 2012 in Bradford

A young mum with a hereditary heart condition who went against medical advice to have a baby died eight weeks after giving birth to a healthy daughter.

Claire Lloyd, 29, of Whetley Close, Bradford, had end-stage heart disease when she found she was pregnant, a Bradford inquest heard yesterday.

Mrs Lloyd, who was clean of crack-cocaine and heroin and had been on a methadone programme at the time, was advised by her GP, nurses and a cardiac specialist to have an abortion but she refused despite the added strain the baby would put on her frail heart.

She died at Bradford Royal Infirmary on August 22 in 2010 in her husband’s arms and with their baby by her side.

The inquest heard at first she was well after the birth but BRI cardiologist Dr Paul Sainsbury said: “The problem is that the complications tend not to occur in pregnancy. The price to pay is afterwards.”

He said patients at that stage of Mrs Lloyd’s particular condition would be expected to have about five years left but, after giving birth, it could be months.

He said: “It was her own choice. It was her decision and we respected that and we did our best to get her through.”

Assistant Deputy Bradford Coroner Professor Paul Marks said he was satisfied methadone had not played a part in her death, that her medication and how she had been monitored had been appropriate and said from medical evidence “the statistics were stacked against her.”

He recorded that she died a natural death.