A young mother-to-be died in “severe pain” because of a catalogue of failures as midwives ignored her pleas for help, a court has heard.

The family of Sareena Ali, 27 of City Gate House, Eastern Avenue, Gants Hill, were told an examination just 25 minutes before she collapsed could have saved her life, according to an independent doctor.

She died at Queen’s Hospital, Romford on January 28, five days after losing her unborn baby while in the hospital.

Her family looked on as a narrative verdict of natural causes contributed to by neglect, was read out yesterday (Wednesday) at Walthamstow Coroner’s Court.

The court heard Mrs Ali’s baby girl was born into her abdomen after her uterus ruptured and she suffered internal haemorrhage, despite her family calling for help three times in just half an hour.

Deborah Wheeler, director of nursing at Barking, Havering and Redbridge University Hospitals NHS Trust, admitted the trust had, and was still, failing in terms of attitude to patients.

Coroner Chinyere Inyama examined documents on labour induction to discover women were still not being examined hourly, as recommended, at the time of Mrs Ali’s death.

Earlier Miss Wheeler was left red-faced after she had handed over revised labour guidelines which the coroner discovered were old, and was told she would have to produce the new copy by the end of the day.

The court heard staff at the nurses’ station ignored the pleas of Mrs Ali’s husband Usman Javed and his brother-in-law on three or four occasions, after she complained of being in pain hours after arriving at the hospital on January 23 to be induced.

When the midwives eventually came to check on Mrs Ali, she was unconscious.

An oxygen mask was put on her and Mr Javed said he realised it was not connected. Mrs Ali had to have an emergency caesarean section, but by that time the baby had died.

She died five days later after being kept on a life support machine.

The coroner said: “I find that the help was not forthcoming in a timely fashion, if at all. The absence of help contributed to a gross failure to undertake observations and examinations of an utterly dependent woman.

“It’s more likely than not that if basic observations had been carried out, there would have been a different outcome.”

Commenting on health trust guidelines for induced women, he said: “It was not explicit enough in 2010, in 2011 at the time of Mrs Ali’s death and even after two revisions, it’s not explicit enough.”

He said he would pass his findings on to the Care Quality Commission, Barking, Havering and Redbridge University Hospitals NHS Trust and the Department of Health.