‘She was a little superstar’: 29-year-old dies with coronavirus days after giving birth to son

Mother unable to see baby due to being hospitalised before passing away

The family of a new mother who died in hospital with coronavirus days after giving birth to her son have spoken of their devastation over her death.

Fozia Hanif, who died at Birmingham’s Heartlands Hospital on 8 April, was found to have a slight fever at a regular maternity check-up during her pregnancy and later tested positive for Covid-19.

“They [the hospital] said we’re going to keep her here to find out [what is wrong] and we’re going to do a Covid test and they kept her for two days,” Wajid Ali, her husband, told ITV News.

“The test came back positive and the next day they said it was mild and you can go home. After four days, she had difficulty breathing and we called the ambulance.”

Ms Hanif gave birth to her son Ayaan Hanif Ali – who remains in hospital but has tested negative for Covid-19 – by caesarean section on 2 April and was taken to a recovery ward, where her condition deteriorated.

The 29-year-old was then taken into intensive care and put on a ventilator.

Her husband was told days after her admission to ICU that she had developed a blood clot and was in a coma.

Due to her condition, Ms Hanif was not able to see her baby and only saw pictures of him, printed out for her by hospital staff, before she passed away.

“She was holding [the photo] and said, ‘look it’s our baby’ and ‘we’re going to come home soon’… that’s the last time I spoke to her,” Mr Ali said.

Ms Hanif’s husband and father were allowed to see her in intensive care, wearing protective equipment, before her ventilator was turned off, leaving her family devastated.

“We’re all devastated, shocked, we’re still grieving, but we’ve got each other. We’re holding each other, supporting each other,” Nabil Hanif, her father, said.

“She was a little superstar with us in our family. She was an inspiration to us all.”

Figures from the Department of Health and Social Care show 18,738 people have died after testing positive for Covid-19 in the UK, as of 5pm on 22 April.

Additional reporting by PA