A recently married mother and her baby daughter have died after she collapsed at a New Year's Eve party.
Former Colchester St Helena School pupil Sarah Mead, 29, was more than seven months pregnant when she was rushed to hospital by ambulance with internal bleeding.
Despite an emergency Caesarean operation baby Caitlin died of complications shortly afterwards.
Sarah Mead
Following the operation Sarah remained critically ill and died on Thursday.
A spokesman for the Norfolk and Norwich University Hospital where she died said the odds of such a major haemorrhage were several thousand to one.
She leaves a husband, Steven, who she married only months before her death and her family who live in Colchester, her childhood town.
Parents Adrian and Diana Jones and sister Nicki and brother Richard were too upset to comment.
Sarah had moved to Attleborough, Norfolk, where she worked as a sixth-form tutor and science teacher at Attleborough High School. She was a graduate of the University of East Anglia, Norwich.
Sarah and Steven had been together for five years before getting married in October.
High school teacher Steven, 44, paid tribute to all the staff involved in Sarah's care at the Norfolk and Norwich University Hospital.
Husband Steven said: "Sarah was a shining star. She was a lovely girl and we were so happy together and had both agreed that if we had a girl, she would be called Caitlin.
"Sarah will be sorely missed by so many people."
Published Monday, January 6, 2003
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