Husband tells of agony over death of Jehovah's Witness wife who refused blood transfusion after C-section

A husband has told of his grief for his Jehovah's Witness wife who reportedly died after refusing a blood transfusion.

Adeline Keh, 40, suffered a fatal infection after giving birth by Caesarean section to her son at Homerton Hospital in east London, her distraught husband Kwaku said.

She was transferred to the Papworth heart and lung hospital in Cambridge, where she is said to have refused a blood transfusion and died a month after the birth.

Homerton chiefs have launched an independent review of the tragic case, which was one of four new mothers' deaths at the hospital in nine months.

The inquest into Mrs Keh's death found her decision to refuse blood 'may have compromised the final medical intervention', according to a report in the Evening Standard.

It was also listed as a cause of death alongside acute respiratory distress syndrome, sepsis and an infection of the Caesarean wound.

Mr Keh, a lawyer from Walthamstow, east London, told the Standard he was devastated that 'we never got to come home as a family'.

He added: 'My wife and I were best friends... I was overjoyed and could not wait for them to come home.

'Each time I went to pick her up [from the Homerton] I was told that she could not come home. Eventually my wife lost her fight and passed away.'

Jehovah's Witnesses refuse to accept blood transfusions because they say blood represents life, and only God is the giver of life.

That belief has led to scores of controversies, many of which have ended up before judges.