An MP says she is “determined to tackle” a health issue that nearly killed her after a complicated pregnancy.
Rutland and Stamford MP Alicia Kearns recently spoke out in Parliament about the danger of pulmonary embolisms, a year after being rushed to hospital because she had “at least” five of the blood clots on her lungs.
“It’s taken me a year to talk about it, but I’m now determined to tackle this issue,” Mrs Kearns told the Local Democracy Reporting Service.
“Blood clots are the number one cause of death in women who are pregnant in this country, yet I don’t think any woman could tell you that. I’ve spoken to mums about it at the school gate, and not one had heard the words ‘blood clot’ said to them while pregnant. They do not feature in the pack you get, outlining potential conditions to be wary of.
“Even more terrifying is that 25 per cent of women who die from blood clots do so before their first 12 week scan.”
A pulmonary embolus can prove fatal
A single blood clot in the lung, known as a pulmonary embolus, can prove fatal, according to the NHS. With blood flow reduced through the lungs, the heart must work harder to pump blood past the obstruction, limiting the amount of oxygen that can be carried to the rest of the body.
The dash to hospital in June 2025, on the orders of her doctor with pulmonary emboli on her lungs, came just two months after she’d given birth to her third child, a daughter, after a complicated pregnancy involving two serious conditions.
The Conservative MP suffered from placenta previa, where the placenta completely covers the opening of the cervix, and placenta accreta, in which it attaches abnormally deeply to the wall of the uterus. During her pregancy, Mrs Kearns shared her condition with constituents through her column in the Rutland and Stamford Mercury, saying the pregnancy had been ‘far from easy’. Shortly after giving birth, she thanked readers for their ‘kindness and concern’.
She said that these complications required an early caesarean section, followed by a hysterectomy immediately after the baby was safely delivered on April 29.
She thought the problems were behind her
By the end of May she was on the road to recovery and enjoying life with her husband, newborn baby girl and two older children, only for her convalescence to be waylaid by the discovery of a new condition.
“A week or so into June I started feeling as though something wasn’t quite right,” she said.
“My only symptoms were a low-level temperature and a slight catching in my chest when breathing in, but also an impending sense of doom. I didn’t know it at the time, but a sense of doom is in fact an official symptom of pulmonary embolism.
“Dr Laura Stephens recognised what I was experiencing. She didn’t want to scare me and say that pulmonary embolism was a potential concern, but she identified what other people might have dismissed as low-level symptoms, like catching my breath, and that impending sense of doom. She ordered a blood test, then rang me back the next day and said I’ve rung the hospital – you need to go there immediately.
“Me, my husband and my baby jumped in the car and headed straight for Addenbrooke’s Hospital in Cambridge. Thankfully, since Dr Stephens had phoned ahead to tell them about my test results, when I arrived urgent care took me straight to the pulmonary thrombosis unit. They did a CT scan and found at least five blood clots had travelled through my heart and into my lungs. One is enough to kill you, and I had five. They said there could be more.
“It was terrifying, but then I’d already been through a year of being told I might not live anyway.”
Swift NHS treatment saved her life
Mrs Kearns, who was first elected as the MP for the then Rutland and Melton constituency in December 2019, was swiftly administered injections and blood thinners, which she remained on for several months. She has since made a strong recovery, in spite of subsequent medical issues involving her liver and her spleen. She is now leveraging her experience to change government guidance around blood clots during pregnancy.
The experience was all the more shocking because her first two pregnancies, a son and a daughter born in 2021, were comparatively easier.
Last week, Mrs Kearns delivered an “upsetting” statement to the Ministerial Statement on National Maternity and Neonatal Investigation session in Parliament, in which she shared her near-fatal experience.
She called on Health Secretary James Murray MP to include blood clot guidance in the National Action Plan on maternity safety and details on it to be included in pregnancy packs to make parents-to-be aware of the condition. He said he would be “very happy” to meet with her to discuss the topic in more detail.
“I’ve written a formal letter to the Health Secretary and I will grab him in person,” she told the LDRS. “Slightly difficult that if Andy Burnham comes in then personnel might change, but I will work with whoever it is to get this done.
“My first priority is that pulmonary embolism appears in the National Action Plan. My second is to make sure that the average woman in this country has heard of blood clots during pregnancy.”
By Local Democracy Reporter Seth Walton.
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