A woman whose pregnant daughter died from a blood clot claims the 18-year-old was buried with her unborn son sewn back inside her.
Scarlett Holyoake was six months pregnant when she collapsed at home in Risca, South Wales. By the time paramedics arrived she had stopped breathing and had no heartbeat upon arriving at the Royal Gwent Hospital in Newport. The trainee chef was expecting her first child – a boy she planned on calling Rocco.
But doctors were unable to save either of them – despite delivering the baby by C-section as soon as Ms Holyoake arrived at hospital. And in a final tribute to her daughter, devastated Gayle De-Lacey asked for her grandson to be sewn back inside her for burial.
Ms De-Lacy, from Newport, Wales, told The Sun: ‘Rocco was too young, legally, to require a separate burial and I was asked if I’d like him put back inside Scarlett. ‘I knew that was what she would have wanted, so they’d be together forever. Her baby was back where he belonged.’
Miss Leila Hanna, a consultant gynaecologist and obstetrician at BMI The Sloane Hospital, told MailOnline it was ‘rare, but not unheard of’ for a baby and mother to be buried in this way. She added that families of a deceased child are usually given back to the family – but there may be exceptional cases such as this. And she explained doctors would have tried to save the baby by C-section, but the time between Miss Holyoake collapsing and arriving at hospital had clearly been too long.
‘If the mother collapsed, her blood pressure would have plummeted – and as this helps provide nourishment to the baby through the placenta, it can have have a devastating effect. ‘ Speaking after Miss Holyoake’s sudden death in January, her boyfriend Sam Moulder, 20, said she couldn’t wait to be a mother and had been in good spirits in the hours before her death.