Gabriella Ferlita
A mum-of-three tragically collapsed and died just weeks after giving birth to her youngest child due to a ‘preventable’ blood clot.
Samantha Crosbie, a ‘fun and loving’ mental health nurse assistant, was overjoyed at the birth of her baby girl, Betty, on 9 February 2020, despite enduring a long pregnancy and pelvic pain.
Sadly there was only one photo she got to have with her three children, as her life was tragically cut short on 16 March 2020 - just three weeks after welcoming her daughter.
Samantha collapsed suddenly at her home in Red Hill, Surrey while her husband Paul Crosbie, a scaffolder, and their two older children Evelyn, who was nine at the time, and Stanley, then five, were at the cinema together.
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While Samantha was with the baby, who was just over one month old at the time, she lost consciousness.
Thankfully, her mother Jane Parker, 62, was on the phone to her at the time of her collapse and began to frantically shout her daughter’s name on the phone before ringing for an ambulance.
Samantha tragically died the day after being rushed to the hospital, where tests revealed she had a pulmonary embolism - a blocked blood vessel in the lungs and heart.
Although rare, the blood clot may have broken off from the veins of the legs and travelled to her lungs, as pregnant women are more at risk of the life-threatening condition.
Although Samantha’s mother is still devastated by the loss she faced just under two years ago, Jane, who lives in Walton-on-the-Hill, Surrey, hopes that her daughter’s tragic experience can help educate other women and prevent needless deaths.
She said: “If Samantha had been more aware of the risks, she might still be here today.
“I want her children to know that we did everything we could to help make a difference.
“I want them to know that her life wasn’t wasted.”
Above everything, Jane said, Samantha had always wanted to have children.
“It was her lifelong ambition to be a mother,” she said of her daughter’s legacy. “She loved them and did everything with them.
“She would always be doing fancy dress – dressing up like prisoners or The Simpsons for fun at home or dressing up the buggy as a bumble bee for a village fete competition.
“She always had these fun, clever ideas which they loved.”
If you have experienced a bereavement and would like to speak with someone in confidence, contact Cruse Bereavement Care via their national helpline on 0808 808 1677.