‘Totally healthy’ new mum, 26, dies just hours after giving birth to baby boy
A grief-stricken family has paid tribute to a ‘totally healthy’ woman who died mere moments after giving birth.
Emily Lockley’s son, Harley, will grow up without a mum after the 26-year-old collapsed during labour at a Stoke-on-Trent hospital.
Doctors believe Emily suffered a suspected pulmonary aneurysm – when the blood vessels that ferry blood from the heart to your lungs bulge.
This extremely rare condition damages the heart, causing the patient to cough up blood and feel breathless, and has multiple causes.
To her family, ABBA-fan Emily was their ‘little dancing queen’ who was ‘beautiful inside and out’.
Mum Tracey Wootton, 46, told The Mirror: ‘Emily, we will look after your gorgeous boy Harley, and we will pass him your love that you will be sending from heaven.’
Sister Chloe Stokes, 24, added: ‘As a family, we are in complete shock, as Emily had a perfectly normal pregnancy.
‘We are all struggling a lot, but having Harley is like having a piece of Emily. He is bringing us comfort.’
Chloe had been with her sister every step of the way during her pregnancy journey.
The beautician went to every scan with Emily, who worked at a GP’s surgery.
‘Emily was absolutely thrilled about being pregnant, it was all she ever wanted. She dreamed of being a mum and would have had two or three babies if she could have,’ Chloe said.
When her water broke while at home on her 26th birthday on February 5, her mum and partner, welder Tyler Collinson, 27, raced her to Royal Stoke University Hospital.
Healthcare professionals decided it was best to induce her at 12am the following day, Chloe said. She went into active labour six hours later.
‘She Facetimed me at about 6.30am, she was taking her gas and air and speaking to me as normal,’ the sister added.
‘About 40 minutes later, my mum contacted us and told us to get to the hospital.’
Bleary-eyed and medicated, Emily appeared to be doing well until she took one deep breath and collapsed.
Harley was born at 7.56am – about four hours later, Emily was dead.
‘As far as we knew, she had nothing wrong with her,’ Chloe said.
‘Emily loved running and regularly went on runs with Tyler. She did a half marathon a couple of years ago.’
Tyler is still living with his son at the Wootons’ family home in the Staffordshire city, with Emily’s loved ones in the dark about the exact cause of death ahead of a postmortem result.
‘It will take a little while,’ Chloe said. ‘We are happy with the doctors and nurses and very grateful to the neo-natal unit, as they kept Harley safe.’
Emily’s funeral will be held March 1 and the family is fund-raising to help cover the costs.
On their GoFundMe, which has so far raised more than £12,000, Chloe says: ‘As you can imagine, this has come as a huge shock to us all as a family.
‘No one ever prepares you for something so awful to happen, especially to a young, low-risk, healthy woman.’
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