“It is due to a block­age in a blood ves­sel in the lungs. A pa­tient can ex­pe­ri­ence chest pains or breath­less­ness. It is so se­ri­ous it can cause col­lapse and death. It hap­pens when there are blood clots in the leg.

“Prompt treat­ment is im­por­tant and can be life sav­ing even to preg­nant women and women who have al­ready giv­en birth,” he added.

In the case of a C-sec­tion, deep vein throm­bo­sis would make the moth­er sus­cep­ti­ble to de­vel­op­ing a blood clot than if she gives birth vagi­nal­ly be­cause surgery car­ries a risk of blood clots, he said.

Cholelithi­a­sis, the doc­tor ex­plained, was when gall­stones were formed due to block­age in the ducts of the gall­blad­der which caus­es in­flam­ma­tion or in­fec­tion.

“Gall­stones are com­mon in women dur­ing the post­par­tum state be­cause of the ac­tion on var­i­ous hor­mones in the body,” the doc­tor said.

Con­sul­tant gy­nae­col­o­gist Dr Je­han Ali told CNC3 last night that the mor­tal­i­ty rate for a pul­monary em­bo­lus can be as high as 80 per cent. He said obe­si­ty is a ma­jor con­tribut­ing fac­tor to the con­di­tion.

But Ali said it was on­ly if it was de­tect­ed that a pa­tient was put on med­ica­tion as it was not rou­tine to ad­min­is­ter those drugs to a pa­tient. He said a blood clot could oc­cur dur­ing de­liv­ery and up to 14 days af­ter giv­ing birth.

Ali said Ay­ers’ vom­it­ing was un­usu­al but he be­lieved she should have been as­sessed to de­ter­mine the rea­son be­fore dis­charge.

Min­is­ter of Health Dr Fuad Khan said an in­ves­ti­ga­tion has been launched in­to Ay­ers’ death and in­ves­ti­ga­tors were ex­pect­ed to con­duct a thor­ough ex­am­i­na­tion of her med­ical his­to­ry.

Hus­band in shock

Speak­ing with the T&T Guardian at his home yes­ter­day, Charles, who held ba­by Daniel in his arms, was in­con­solable. He said he did not un­der­stand how Ay­ers would have de­vel­oped a blood clot in the legs.

“This is too much. It is too much to un­der­stand. I can­not un­der­stand it. She had no in­jury to her legs. She was good,” he said.

Asked if he knew whether there were any per­son­nel from the Ob­stet­rics and Gy­nae­col­o­gy Reg­is­trar present for di­rect in­volve­ment in the op­er­a­tion as re­quired, Charles said he was not al­lowed in the the­atre for the pro­ce­dure.

Charles said he met Ay­ers on so­cial net­work­ing site Face­book five years ago and de­scribed her as his “sol­dier.” He said both her par­ents died when she was very young and she was raised by her sis­ters in their home­town at Navet Vil­lage, Rio Claro.

“She was too good. I don’t have any bad mem­o­ry of her at all. She was re­al gen­uine and stood by my side through thick and thin.

“She al­ways gave me great ad­vice. We just had a con­nec­tion that I can­not even de­scribe in words,” Charles said with tears rolling down his cheeks.

“I lied to her. I told her every­thing is go­ing to be al­right but it wasn’t. Now she is gone,” he added as he was com­fort­ed by his broth­er, Kam­bon.

Charles held ba­by Daniel close to his chest dur­ing the in­ter­view and nev­er let him go. At in­ter­vals he would look the ba­by in his face and ask him if he was okay.

Ay­ers’ will be laid to rest to­mor­row in Rio Claro.

Com­pli­ca­tions af­ter C-sec­tion

Af­ter go­ing through labour for over 12 hours, first-time moth­er Keisha Ay­ers was tak­en to the op­er­at­ing the­atre on April 9 2015 for an emer­gency C-sec­tion.

At about 9.22 pm that same day, ba­by Daniel Charles was born. He was a healthy ba­by and weighed close to eight pounds.

Ay­ers’ com­mon-law-hus­band, Ju­ma Charles, claimed he was told by doc­tors his ba­by had to be hos­pi­talised for a few days be­cause he had been in­fect­ed with bac­te­ria in his blood and had to be placed on an­tibi­otics. Ay­ers was dis­charged on April 13.

Charles said in the days that fol­lowed Ay­ers com­plained about ex­cru­ci­at­ing pains and her legs “lock­ing up.” He said he thought that was nor­mal for some­one who un­der­went C-sec­tion. When her pains grew worst and she be­gan to grow very weak, Charles at­tempt­ed to take her to the hos­pi­tal last Fri­day.

But while at­tempt­ing to leave the house, Ay­ers fell to the ground and told him she could not go on be­cause she did not have the strength. She was tak­en to the Ari­ma Dis­trict Hos­pi­tal via am­bu­lance but was pro­nounced dead on ar­rival.