PICTURES OF VICTIM AVAILABLE. A widower who c

PICTURES OF VICTIM AVAILABLE.

A widower who claimed a ‘disastrous operation’ killed his wife during labour is to seek expert advice after a coroner ruled her death was due to natural causes.

Ana Maria Chammas, 33, died after an emergency Caesarean section was performed as she gave birth to her son Manuel two years ago.

After a ‘torrential haemorrhage’ doctors at the Chelsea and Westminster Hospital decided to carry out a hysterectomy.

But surgeons found the placenta, the organ that supplies blood to the baby, had ‘burrowed’ through the womb and attached itself to the back of
the mother’s bladder.

All attempts to stem the colossal flow of blood failed and despite receiving 60 units of blood Mrs Chammas died in intensive care.

Husband Nabil Chammas, 37, the former chief engineer of Farnham Council, in Surrey sent a fax to Westminster Coroners Court before the inquest alleging there had been a ‘cover-up of the facts’.

‘The operation that ended my wife’s life took place on 14 June.

I advised the hospital prior to that disastrous operation should anything happen to
her I would hold them responsible,’ Mr Chammas said.

Speaking after the case, Mr Chammas, who had lived with his wife at of (27) St Mary Abbotts Terrace, Kensington, said he believed the inquest had resolved some questions.

But he said he still had misgivings about how the operation was conducted, adding: ‘I believe an
independent expert may not agree with what was done.

‘

Mrs Chammas was in hospital for 10 weeks before the operation because there was a risk on internal bleeding.

She had had three previous Caesarians because a condition called ‘placenta previa’ where the placenta was wrongly positioned above the cervix, the neck of the womb.

She had two girls, Samia, 8, and Grace, 5, and one boy, Zaki, 7, before Manuel was born.

Consultant obstetrician Mark Johnson decided to perform a Caesarean shortly before 36 weeks when Mrs Chammas was bleeding heavily in the early hours of
14 June 1998.

The child – Manuel – was delivered safely at 5.

42am but three minutes later the bleeding became worse and her blood pressure dropped.

But when Mr Johnson found he could not remove the placenta.

He called another consultant colleague, Mr Guy Thorpe-Beeston , who also battled to to stem the flow of blood.

‘The haemorrhage continued and unit upon unit of blood was pumped into Mrs Chammas,’ said the coroner Dr Paul Knapman, in his summing up.

‘The decision was then made that a hysterectomy should be performed.

It was thought that if the womb would be removed, the bleeding would stop.

‘There was considerable difficulty in performing the hysterectomy because the placenta had invaded the muscle of the uterus, and had gone through and
actually attached itself to the back of the bladder,’ Dr Knapman said.

Further attempts to stop the bleeding included clamping the body’s biggest artery, the aorta, to no avail.

Dr Knapman calculated there were five consultants and five senior registrars battling to save Mrs Chamma’s life as well as eight nurses on duty.

Dr Knapman said: ‘The professor of Obstetrics was woken at 5am, two consultant obstetricians were present, one consultant gynaecologist arrives,
two senior registrars in obstetrics, one consultant anaesthetist was present throughout, two senior registrars in anaesthetics, and one consultant
vascular surgeon as well as a senior registrar in vascular surgery.

‘

‘The numbers and seniority of staff attempting to save the life of Mrs Chammas, an NHS patient in an NHS hospital is scarcely credible.

‘

Added to that was that the massive bleeding required 60 units of blood – much of which had to sent by motorcycle courier from Colindale, north London.

The human body contains just twelve units.

The mother needed a further 200 units before she died on 11 July.

Dr Knapman said that even if medical staff knew beforehand that the woman’s placenta had developed abnormally it would not have made a difference.

‘The placenta had invaded through the uterus itself like a tumour inducing into itself a leash of abnormal blood vessels,’ he said.

‘All this was deep in the pelvis with blood spurting and welling out – even with the benefit of hindsight it seems very unlikely she could have been saved.

‘

Dr Knapman went on: ‘I’ve heard no credible criticism that can be laid at the foot of medical and nursing staff.

‘

‘Nevertheless Mr Chammas has lost his wife, and their children have lost their mother but that does not mean that it follows that blame needs to be
attributed.

‘Mr Chammas is very much deserving of our sympathy in what has been a terrible tragedy and a loss to all concerned.

‘But I think the death can be categorised as a death due to natural causes,’ Dr Knapman said.

Mr Chammas, who is now living with relatives in the south of Spain at Zahara de Los Atunes, said his wife’s death had been a ‘great blow.

‘

‘She was a wonderful girl and a wonderful mother,’ he said.

Verdict: Natural causes.

ends