23 September 2023 , 10:58
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Devastated family and friends of a loving wife and mum who died aged 47 after picking up a chest infection have paid tribute to the “compassionate” midwife who “had so much empathy”.
Sara Pitt passed away just weeks before Christmas 2021 after coming down with a chest infection. Sara's husband Karl, a retired teacher, said his wife of 25 years was the "most wonderful person". He said Sara, who had worked in Heartlands and Solihull hospitals for almost 18 years, would often suffer with chest infections that would usually clear up, Birmingham Live reports.
"Sara would get chest infections every six to nine months and we hadn’t thought too much of it,” Karl recalled. “On a holiday in Spain in around 2016 Sara had to go into hospital. Doctors there thought there was scarring from an old or latent TB [tuberculosis] infection. After that, steroids and antibiotics would usually clear the infections when they came.” But approaching Christmas two years ago, an infection felt different to Sara. She had told Karl "this is not clearing" and spent a week in bed at home.
The hero health worker wanted to get back to the job she loved - as well as looking after her three children Caitlyn, now 15, and twins Chloe and Harrison, aged just 13. Karl went on: "Sara was a midwife for 18 years and she worked so hard to get there. She supported countless new mums to bring new life into the world and she did all of this while raising our children."
The widow was at work at a school in Wolverhampton when his daughter called to say she had called an ambulance for her mum as her chest was getting worse. Karl rushed to be by his wife's side but said he could see she was "really struggling". He added: "After two days she had become so weak. The doctors said that her struggling for breath was sapping her energy and putting her organs under strain so they recommended placing Sara in an induced coma to support her breathing and organs and hopefully improve her condition. Sara and I agreed and we said goodbye. We did think she would recover well."
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After five days in hospital, Sara’s condition had not improved. Devastatingly, there was nothing more that could be done to help her. “We had been looking forward to Christmas with the kids as you do," Karl explained. "Sara was compassionate. She talked straight. She always gave you time and you appreciated that. Sara was well-respected, honest and she had so much empathy. She connected with everybody.
But the tragedy gave others a second chance at life after her organs were donated with her decision to carry a donor card thought to have saved or transformed four lives. "We had talked about organ donation briefly,” Karl said. “It was on her driving licence and she was on the organ donor register so when it came to letting Sara go, a nurse came to speak to us about donation. It is what Sara wanted and we respected her wishes.
“At Sara’s funeral we could not get everyone in the room. People had to wait outside. But whoever it was, be them a nurse, doctor, consultant, midwife, even students who came, they said that she was wonderful and the best they had ever worked with. I’ve no doubt that she was.
"Some months later I received a letter to tell me that four of Sara’s organs had gone on to save or change the lives of other people. There is no question this was a help for us. It meant a lot to know that after helping so many in life she was able to help so many in death. It is important to be registered on the organ donor register. To know Sara’s donation saved or made other lives easier is something we will never ever regret as a family.” Find out more about organ donation here.