Overview
- Cathy MacGuinness, 40, suffered a cardiac arrest at home on Easter Sunday two weeks after giving birth and died in hospital nearly three weeks later.
- Her family says she had undiagnosed dilated cardiomyopathy, a disease that enlarges the heart and weakens its pump, causing signs that can be easy to miss.
- Her husband, Sebastian Fletcher, performed CPR until paramedics restored a pulse, but doctors later found severe brain injury from lack of oxygen.
- A GoFundMe for Fletcher and their three daughters raised more than $155,000 within a day as friends noted the couple did not have life insurance.
- Relatives are asking new mothers to get checked for tiredness, shortness of breath or leg swelling because those symptoms can indicate heart failure even after a routine birth.