East Kent: Relatives of women who died with herpes suing NHS trust

The relatives of two women who died with herpes after giving birth are bringing clinical negligence claims against an NHS trust at the High Court.

Kimberley Sampson, 29, and Samantha Mulcahy, 32, died six weeks apart in 2018.

They both had Caesarean sections performed by the same surgeon at hospitals run by East Kent Hospitals University NHS Foundation Trust.

Ms Sampson’s mother Yvette Sampson and Ms Mulcahy’s widower Ryan Mulcahy are pursuing separate legal challenges against the trust over alleged failures in post-operative care.

They also claim that the surgeon, who cannot be named for legal reasons, was the source of the two women’s infection with the herpes simplex virus.

The trust denies liability in the cases, arguing that the pair were not exposed to the virus during their operations or by the surgeon.

Ms Sampson was operated on at the Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother Hospital in Margate, and Ms Mulcahy at the William Harvey Hospital in Ashford.

In July 2023 coroner Catherine Wood concluded the women died of multiple organ failure as a consequence of the dissemination of the virus acquired before or around the time of delivery of their children.

The coroner in the Mid Kent and Medway Coroners investigation also said Ms Sampson and Ms Mulcahy could have been treated sooner when their conditions deteriorated.

After the inquest trust bosses said they were “truly sorry” over the “additional and unnecessary suffering” it caused the families “through failing to answer their questions and contributing to the delays in their inquests being heard”.

The coroner previously concluded on the balance of probabilities it was “unlikely” the infections came from the surgeon, with the inquest told his hands were fully scrubbed and double-gloved and he was wearing a mask during procedures.

He said he had no lesions and was not infected, though he was not tested, the inquest heard.

Lawyers for the families had asked for the two cases to be considered jointly but on Friday Judge Charles Bagot KC rejected the application.

He concluded there were “differences in the way the cases are put and the issues”, and that linking them would be more expensive, complicated and slower.