A FAMILY is battling to raise awareness of ectopic pregnancies in memory of a young woman who died after an ambulance service failed to take her to hospital quickly enough.

A coroner has ruled delays in getting Sabrina Stevenson, 28, to hospital caused her to suffer a cardiac arrest from which she didn’t recover.

Miss Stevenson’s family, from Rayleigh, are now trying to raise awareness of the condition which can cause death within hours if not treated.

Coroner Dr Richard Brittain delivered a narrative verdict on Miss Stevenson’s death, which happened after a foetus developed outside her womb.

Dr Brittain, who is yet to make recommendations following the inquest, said there had been “inappropriate decisions, missed opportunities and clinical failures” in Miss Stevenson’s delayed transportation from her North London home to hospital by the London Ambulance Service.

Her stepfather, Gary Coventry, of Temple Way, Rayleigh, said: “Sabrina went out on a Saturday night and only had a couple of drinks, but felt unwell the next day. No one knew she was pregnant.

"She hadn’t told anyone so we think she may not have even known.

“She told the friend she was living with she felt rough. She was sick several times and had a raging headache. When her friend returned at 4.30pm she told her she thought she was worse and at 6.30pm they called an ambulance.

"It took two hours to arrived and the paramedics spent an hour and a quarter with her, during which she was accused of being a drama queen.

“They eventually called other paramedics who started to assess her, but at 10pm she had a cardiac arrest. They took her to hospital, but she died.”

Now Mr Stevenson and his partner Dawn, Sabrina's mum, are determined her death won’t be in vain and have set about fundraising for the Ectopic Pregnancy Trust, of which Mrs Coventry is a committee member.

Mr Coventry, who featured in the Echo earlier this year when he and another man performed CPR on a man who had collapsed in the car park at Rayleigh train station, said: “The condition happens a lot. It’s quite common and about five women a year die from ectopic pregnancies.

“We’re trying to raise funds for the charity, but also awareness of the condition so husbands and partners will recognise the signs.

“We also feel GPs are not fast enough to spot the signs and are in some way dismissive of the women who report with certain issues. Since this happened, my wife and I have started the Sabrina Cup, a charity golf day which we hold at the Rayleigh Club.

“The event is open to members and non-members alike and we create a few fun things on the day to encourage people to hand over their cash, as well as sports memorabilia auctions and the usual raffle.

“The charity is completely independent and donation and volunteer-driven with no support from the Government.”

Medical Director of the London Ambulance Service, Dr Fenella Wrigley, said: “We would like to once again apologise to Ms Stevenson’s family and we are sorry we could not provide the high quality care expected.

“We received details of the inquest’s verdict when it was concluded and we have already made changes to how we operate to prevent an incident like this happening again.

“We have received additional funding from our GP Clinical Commissioning Groups (CCGs) to improve our performance and staffing to ensure we can provide high quality care to every patient. We have also changed the content of our staff training as a result of learning from this experience”.

“We hope Ms Stevenson’s family will be reassured by the actions we have taken so far and that we will continue to review our procedures.”

For more information on the Ectopic Pregnancy Trust, visit www.ectopic.org.uk

For more information about the charity event at the club in Hullbridge Road, Rayelgh, call 07967 500130.