Artist’s fatal heart condition ‘missed due to her pregnancy’
AN AWARD-WINNING artist died from a heart condition exacerabated by norovirus, an inquest heard, after her pregnancy might have made it difficult to assess the severity of her illness.
Francesca Lowe, 37, a painter and printmaker, was six months pregnant when she was found by her husband collapsed at their home in north London, the hearing heard.
Mother-of-one Ms Lowe studied at the Royal Academy Schools and had represented the UK at the Beijing Biennale, won the Red Mansion Prize in 2003 and the Deutsche Bank Pyramid Award for Fine Art the following year.
In the two days before her death on Jan 23, she had caught the winter vomiting bug norovirus.
Poplar Coroners’ Court heard an ambulance arrived within seven minutes of Gavin Nolan, her husband and fellow artist, finding her but, despite attempts to revive her, she was pronounced dead at the scene.
During her pregnancy, Ms Lowe was referred to a cardiologist at Homerton Hospital in east London as a precaution for a heart murmur which she had had since she was seven.
During her first pregnancy in 2012 she underwent an echocardiogram which found she had mitral valve prolapse in her heart, which was also detected in January this year.
Dr Hans Ziao, of Homerton Hospital, said: “There is a possibility she had a mild cardiac disease, but a echocardiogram would not detect it.”
Dr Ziao said such a condition might be detected with an MRI scan. However, he said, there might be difficulties associated with a scan on a pregnant patient, failing to give a clear result.
The cause of death was given as cardiomyopathy, contributed to by the fact Ms Lowe was pregnant and had suffered from norovirus before her death.