Goal is reduce deaths of moms in childbirth

Colorado bill aimed at maternal mortality death rate

Adele Marshall’s daughter, Taryn Elkins, was seven months pregnant with her first baby when she died in January 2017 after high blood pressure brought on a seizure that filled her lungs with fluid.

Marshall told a Colorado House committee she believes her daughter and grandson would be celebrating his second birthday rather than the second anniversary of their deaths if the state’s Maternal Mortality Review Committee had the same powers that 41 other states already have.

“My family died that day in that hospital when Taryn stopped breathing,” Marshall told the committee through tears. “Please don’t let this happen to anybody else.”

House Bill 19-1122 would make several significant changes to Colorado’s Maternal Mortality Review Committee. The most important change, according to the bill’s sponsors, is giving committee members protection from being subpoenaed in malpractice lawsuits, which means they could get better, more honest answers and review deaths as they happen rather than waiting at least three years to investigate.

The death of Marshall’s daughter still hasn’t been reviewed by the committee for this reason.

The bill would require the committee to standardize their data and submit annual reports to the legislature with recommendations on how to improve maternal care both before and after the baby is born. Postpartum depression-related suicides are counted as a maternal mortality deaths.

The bill would also reimburse committee members’ travel, lodging and other costs such as child care to encourage people from diverse backgrounds to participate. Rural mothers and women of color both have a higher risk of dying in childbirth than Caucasian women in the Denver metro area, Colorado Children’s Campaign vice president Erin Miller said.

In Colorado, the maternal mortality death rate — the number of deaths per 100,000 live births — doubled from 2008 to 2013, rising from 24 women annually to 46 women, according to the Children’s Campaign.

The American College of Obstetrics and Gynecologists believes 80 percent of those deaths were preventable. That means 116 women could still be alive today.

“Those words are going to stick with me for a while,” said Rep. Jonathan Singer, D-Boulder.

The bill passed out of committee unanimously and heads to the House appropriations committee to get approval for the funding it needs to reimburse committee members.

If it becomes law, Marshall said, she would be interested in serving on it.

Marshall’s daughter had a higher risk for blood pressure problems because of a medical issue she had as a teenager, and she believes doctors overlooked those risks. She also didn’t learn that her daughter got fluid in her lungs during her seizure — a complication Marshall believes could have been prevented by turning Elkins on her side — until months after her death.

“It didn’t have to happen,” Marshall said. “If we had taken the baby the week before, they both would be here today.”