Pregnant artist, 37, dies after catching norovirus

A LEADING artist died while six months pregnant and suffering from norovirus.

The body of Francesca Lowe, 37, was found by her husband Gavin Nolan.

The painter and printmaker had studied at the Royal Academy and staged exhibitions in London and New York.

She had represented the UK at the Beijing Biennale in 2008 and won the Red Mansion Prize in 2003 and the Deutsche Bank Pyramid Award the following year.

Weeks before her death on January 23 the mother of one had had a scan for a long-term heart problem.

And in the two days before her death she caught the winter vomiting bug.

Despite an ambulance arriving at her home in Stoke Newington, North London, within seven minutes, Miss Lowe, pictured, was pronounced dead at the scene. In a witness statement read to Poplar Coroners’ Court her husband, also an artist, said: ‘I woke up and went to the toilet and saw Francesca there. I touched her and she was cold.

‘I pulled her out of the toilet into the hallway and I started with CPR before calling the ambulance.’

Toxicology tests found no trace of drugs or alcohol in her system, but the court was told that during her pregnancy she was referred to a cardiologist at Homerton Hospital in East London.

The referral was described as a precaution for a heart murmur Miss Lowe had suffered since she was seven.

During her first pregnancy in 2012 she had an echocardiogram, which found she had a faulty mitral valve.

Pathologists found ‘significant’ disease in the valve and related scarring, saying she died from the ‘degenerative heart changes’. After hearing the medical evidence the cause of death was given as cardiomyopathy contributed to by pregnancy and norovirus.

Assistant coroner Edwin Buckett adjourned the inquest until an unspecified date in September for more expert testimony to be heard.

An obituary from Miss Lowe’s family at the time of her death read: ‘A wonderful developing talent and an unfathomable loss to us all. Taken too soon. Rest in peace, Cescie.’