THE devastated husband of a young mum who died just months after giving birth has revealed the tragic moment he knew she had passed away.
Martin Wood, 56, was “thrilled” to discover his wife, Chloe was pregnant in July 2021 after thinking for decades that he was infertile.
But the pregnancy turned out to be far from easy.
The 25-year-old had suffered from epilepsy since she was a teenager, and as pregnancy continued, so did her seizures.
When she was 32 weeks pregnant, doctors put Chloe in a coma to stabilise her.
And for safety reasons, a decision was made to deliver her baby, Addison, prematurely via c-section in January 2022.
Things then only continued to get worse for the couple from Lancashire, when little Addison suffered from a collapsed lung and had to be transferred to a specialist hospital.
“It became a nightmare, I thought I was going to lose them both,” Martin recalled.
Chloe came out of the coma, but initially did not remember Martin and had no idea she had given birth.
Eight weeks on, Addison was finally well enough to come home.
She was eventually allowed home but struggled with seizures and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).
“She loved being a mum, she was so bubbly and funny and ditsy,” Martin said.
But Chloe’s seizures meant she couldn’t look after Addison on her own.
So Martin quit his job in a pub and became a full-time dad.
In June 2022, Chloe’s condition began to improve.
“We started planning walks again, looking to the future. I felt like I was getting my wife back,” the dad said.
But in August, Chloe suffered a catastrophic seizure and did not regain consciousness.
“It started as a usual morning; I got up with Addison and Chloe was in bed. I spoke to her, and she replied,” Martin recalled.
“I went back upstairs to get clothes for Addison and found Chloe facedown on the floor.
“She’d had so many seizures by then that I didn’t panic; I rolled her over to revive her but realised her lips were blue.”
Martin called 999 and began CPR.
When paramedics arrived, they worked on Chloe for some time before telling Martin there was nothing they could do.
“I was devastated,” the dad said. “Addison was smiling in her bouncy chair, just seven months old, with her mummy dead upstairs. “
Tests showed Chloe had died from an epileptic seizure.
Martin is now raising Addison in her mum’s memory and says his daughter has pulled him through his grief.
“I feel so blessed to have known Chloe, she was my soulmate. I miss her every day, but she lives on through her beautiful daughter,” Martin said.
Consumed by sadness, the dad started to write a book which he found “very cathartic.”
Martin’s book, ‘Dream Walker’, is a youth fantasy fiction novel which will be published in October.
Epilepsy is a condition of the brain which can disrupt the electrical communication between neurons in the nervous system.
This often leads to seizures, a sudden event that can change a person’s awareness, behaviour or feeling.
The condition is typically diagnosed when a person has two or more unprovoked fits separated by at least 24 hours.
Epilepsy can begin at any age, but it tends to affect people either in early childhood or who are older than 60.
Source: NHS
