Pregnant nurse who died with Covid ‘felt pressured to work’

A heavily pregnant nurse who died with Covid-19 had felt pressured to return to work, an inquest heard.

Mary Agyeiwaa Agyapong worked at Luton and Dunstable University Hospital at the start of the pandemic.

‘She was very worried about bringing Covid into the home,’ said the 28-year-old’s widower Ernest Boateng.

‘She told me the staff were very scared about the virus.’

Ms Agyapong was signed off work with back problems on March 12 last year as she ‘struggled’ with her second pregnancy, but mental health worker Mr Boateng, 30, said she continued to go in for medical appointments and to confirm her ill-health.

‘My understanding is Mary was being pressurised to get back to work,’ he told Bedfordshire and Luton coroner’s court. Nicola Hinselwood, Ms Agyapong’s senior colleague, said this was not true to her knowledge.

The nurse was hospitalised on April 7, at 35 weeks pregnant and her daughter, Mary, was delivered by Caesarean section.

Ms Agyapong was then taken to the ICU, where she died on April 12.

The preliminary cause was given as Covid-19 and pneumonia.

‘What was supposed to be a happy moment quickly changed into a traumatic and painful loss,’ Mr Boateng said.

He believes his wife, originally from Ghana, caught the virus at work.

The hearing continues.

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