12 hours ago
EXCLUSIVE Doctors dismissed my pregnant daughter, 19, when she complained of dizziness. Days later she collapsed and died - and then the unimaginable happened
A mother has revealed her devastation after her daughter and her newborn granddaughter died just hours apart.
Justine Ryan, from Atherton, Greater Manchester, had been so excited when her daughter, Mellodie-Ocean Jarman, announced she was having a baby.
But 33 weeks into the pregnancy, Mellodie, who was just 19 and had no prior health issues, collapsed on her way to a 4D scan and later passed away on February 2. It was later revealed she'd suffered a pulmonary embolism and deep vein thrombosis.
Mellodie's baby daughter, Athena-Pearl, was delivered seven weeks early and survived on life-support for just 16 hours before being laid in her mother's arms.
The tragedy came little more than a day after 'fit and healthy' Mellodie complained of feeling faint and dizzy during a routine pregnancy scan on January 31 and was sent home with medication and antibiotics.
But by the following evening at 11.20pm, Mellodie began to complain she was having difficulties breathing and struggling to see and an ambulance was called.
Shortly after the call was made, the teenager fell unconscious and stopped breathing, collapsing into her mother's arms. Paramedics desperately tried to revive her by performing CPR and she was rushed to the Royal Bolton Hospital.
Doctors there carried out an emergency C-section and Mellodie gave birth to baby Athena-Pearl seven weeks early, at 12.32am on Sunday. Tragically Mellodie died around 80 minutes after the operation while tiny Athena-Pearl died hours later.
Now, Mellodie's mother, Justine, 52, has spoken for the first time of her family's devastation and says she cannot bear to move anything in Mellodie's room, which was ready to welcome their new arrival.
Mother-of-five Justine says: 'Mellodie was my only daughter, and I am lost without her. We were so looking forward to the birth of her little girl. It still does not feel real that they are gone.
'My only comfort is that they are together. That image of Mellodie cradling her baby in her coffin will live with me forever.'
Mellodie was nicknamed 'Boo' by her family, because she wore her hair in little pigtails like the character from Monsters Inc. when she was little.
Justine says: 'Mellodie was kind-hearted and loving. She loved singing and dancing and baking. She was sassy and had a great sense of humour. With four brothers, she loved to boss everyone about and keep them all in line. We called her our Queen.
'She was like an extra arm for me, she was a great help with the little ones, and she took responsibility for all the technology like the apps for school and the ring doorbell. She was especially close to her uncles Steven and Conor.'
Mellodie met her boyfriend Daniel Darbyshire in high school and, for three years, had admired him from afar. In June 2022, she wrote in her diary: 'Happy news!....after three years, he finally asked me to be his.'
Justine says: 'Mellodie skipped home from school that day, she was so happy when Daniel asked her out and they were very much in love.'
After leaving school, Mellodie and Daniel both worked at a local Wetherspoons and in August 2024, Mellodie discovered she was pregnant.
Justine says: 'Mellodie had problems with irregular periods, so we'd made an appointment with the doctor. Beforehand, I told her to do a pregnancy test. I just had a feeling, a mother's intuition.
'Mellodie didn't for a minute think she was pregnant, and she was shocked. She and Daniel were only young, but they soon got used to the idea. They lived with me and began planning for the baby.
'Again, I had a feeling she was carrying a little girl, and I was right. They chose the name Athena-Pearl, we started buying baby girl clothes and we got all the equipment she needed. Our whole family was excited.'
The pregnancy went well until, in January 2025, Mellodie began feeling breathless.
Justine says: 'We told the midwife who said she was low on iron and needed to have more snacks. Another time they said the extra weight would be affecting her breathing.
'But on the way home from the surgery we had to stop several times for her to get her breath, and it didn't seem right to me.'
On January 31, at 33 weeks, Mellodie had booked a 4D scan. But on her way there, she collapsed.
Justine says: 'Daniel and I managed to catch her as she fell on the platform, and we got an ambulance. In the hospital, they thought her breathlessness was due to panic, along with low iron levels.
'They got her to breathe in and out slowly and have a glass of water and discharged her with antibiotics and liquid iron supplements. She had been complaining of pain in her groin, but the checks on the baby were fine which was a relief.'
The following evening, Daniel was planning a last night out with his friends before the baby came. The family enjoyed a Chinese takeaway, and Justine went to bed around 10.30pm.
She says: 'I was woken after 11pm by Mellodie shouting that she'd fallen. I got her into the bathroom, and I realised she was disorientated. I called an ambulance and tried to get her to breathe slowly, as the hospital had advised.
'But then she suddenly fell forwards into my arms. Her eyes rolled back, and I went into panic. I realised she wasn't breathing. I screamed for my son to ring the ambulance back, to come quickly.
'The paramedics arrived but it was 45 minutes before they moved her, and I was hysterical. I followed the ambulance to hospital, and I met Daniel and Steven there.'
Baby Athena was delivered within a few moments of arrival and placed on life-support. Tragically, at 1.52am, Mellodie was declared deceased.
Justine says: 'She was only 19 years old, she was perfectly fit and healthy. I couldn't take it in. But Athena was on life support, and so I had to focus on her. That was what Mellodie would have wanted.
'We were allowed to see Mellodie and, when the tubes and wires were removed, I could give her a proper cuddle.'
Baby Athena clung to life but as the hours passed, the doctors warned she wasn't going to make it.
Justine says: 'The nurses lifted her into a portable incubator, and we took her to the mortuary so she could be laid with her mummy.
'We took photos, handprints, and had cuddles and Athena's life-support was terminated there, in her mother's arms, at 6.24pm. Afterwards, Daniel pushed Athena in her pram back to the neo-natal unit.
'Steven bathed and dressed her, ready for our final goodbye. Mellodie had been really looking forward to doing all those firsts with her baby daughter and now, she would never get the chance.
'Leaving the hospital was surreal; I could never in my worst nightmares have imagined I would lose my daughter and granddaughter together.
'In the days afterwards, the NHS appointments kept coming for Mellodie, another scan, another blood test. It felt very cruel.
'I couldn't bear to move a thing from her bedroom, all the baby clothes are still there, waiting. It was horrendous for Daniel; he'd been about to start a new family, and it had been snatched away from him.
'Mellodie had been planning to book a football tour for Daniel for Valentine's and so we arranged it and Steven and her older brother, Devon, took him.'
Mellodie and Athena-Pearl were cremated together, and Justine chose Paloma Faith's 'Only Love Can Hurt Like This' which was special to them.
Mother and daughter were carried in a white horse and carriage, in a white coffin, and Steven prepared a 10 page 'Celebration of Life' containing photos and memories.
The family have since learned, according to a pathologist's report provided to them, that Mellodie-Ocean died of pulmonary embolism, deep vein thrombosis and third trimester pregnancy.
Her daughter, who was due in seven weeks, passed away from severe hypoxic ischaemic encephalopathy with multiorgan dysfunction, prematurity, and maternal cardiac arrest.
Justine says: 'Her left leg was not red or noticeably swollen or painful. But she was breathless and unwell. Nothing will bring Mellodie back, but we hope other pregnant mothers, and health professionals, will learn from our story.
'If Mellodie had been kept in hospital after that first collapse, perhaps she could have been saved. If Athena-Pearl had been delivered earlier, maybe she'd have made it. We will never know the answers.
'But I am speaking out so that other lives can be saved, in Mellodie's memory. My only comfort is that they are together, and Athena-Pearl is in her mother's arms, where she belongs.'
Mellodie's grief-stricken partner Daniel, 18, said he has been left 'lost and heartbroken' by his partner and daughter's deaths.
He said: 'We were both excited to become partners and had our whole lives to look forward to. I haven't just lost my partner and daughter. I have lost my world, my dreams, and my safety blanket.'
Health bosses overseeing The Royal Bolton Hospital said in February that an investigation into the double death tragedy had been launched.
Dr Francis Andrews, Medical Director at Bolton NHS Foundation Trust, said: 'Our heartfelt condolences are with the family and friends of Mellodie-Ocean and Athena-Pearl at this incredibly difficult time, and we are doing everything we can to support them.
'As with any unexpected death we will be carrying out a full and thorough investigation and will keep the family informed as that progresses.'
The heartbroken family have since thanked medical staff at the Royal Bolton Hospital for their efforts in trying to save the lives of both Mellodie and baby Athena-Pearl.
'We would like to express our gratitude to the team at Bolton from the emergency department for working so very hard to save Mellodie, and to the neonatal unit and all the team on shift that Saturday night and Sunday for trying to save Athena,' they said in a statement.
'Your love, caring, and kind support were very much needed, and you made every effort to make us feel safe.
'The team at the mortuary and our bereavement key worker have been so understanding and caring toward the whole family.
'It was paramount to see that this event has touched everyone involved, and as much as we are struggling to come to terms with this whole situation, we can see that all involved are very much affected.
'So, from the bottom of my heart, we would like to say thank you for being kind and caring at a moment in life that is really needed.'
