I lost my wife and baby in just 30 minutes – my world is destroyed
As he held his son's body in his arms, tears streamed down Luke Powell's face.
His wife, Karlene, 37, had just died on the bed they were sleeping in.
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She was 21 weeks pregnant with their first child, a boy, but had probably suffered a clot in her lungs.
Despite the efforts of paramedics to save mother and son, neither had survived.
“It broke my heart,” said Luke, 43, from Nottingham, who had been married to Karlene for just over a year. “I was so excited to be a father of a newborn baby.
“I loved being a husband to Karlene.
“Suddenly, in less than half an hour, they were both taken.”
The tragedy happened on February 19 this year and self-employed entrepreneur Luke has bravely decided to speak out about it.
He told how the couple started trying for a child in August last year, with Karlene becoming pregnant weeks later.
“She had taken a few pregnancy tests but was always disappointed,” he said.
“Then one day, she handed me a paper towel. A positive pregnancy test was then superimposed. I was jumping up and down and so excited – I'm a crier – but she was calm, even though becoming a mother was her lifelong dream.”
They learned at Nottingham City Hospital at 20 weeks that they were having an apparently healthy boy, with Luke wanting to name him OJ – although Karlene wasn't so convinced.
The pregnancy was “routine but not joyful,” Luke said. “She was very tired and had heavy breathing.
'Looking back, these were all symptoms of the clot she had suffered, but at the time we put it down to pregnancy.
“We just thought it was a 'bad pregnancy,' if that makes sense.”
The morning she died, she was “in good spirits,” Luke said. “That didn't look like her at all,” he added. “She wasn't normally a morning person. But she was in a good mood. We talked and watched videos. I started crying over a sad person and she laughed at me.”
He offered to make her dinner, but she opted for a nap instead. But when Luke came into the bedroom, she sat up in bed and started acting like she was choking even though she hadn't eaten.
“She wasn't breathing properly,” he said. “I didn't understand what was happening, even though she was clearly sick.
“I called 999 and paramedics arrived very quickly and started CPR. They put her on the ground.”
Luke was escorted from the room and by the time he came back in, he knew instinctively that it was terrible news.
“I knew we lost the baby,” he said. “But I didn't expect what would happen next. They explained that Karlene had also died.
“I didn't want to lose any of them. It was so unfair.”
He has since learned that she probably had a clot in the lungs, something she also suffered from in 2008.
It broke my heart. I was so excited to be a father to a newborn.”
Lucas Powell
“I went to see her in the hospital chapel,” he said. “She had a smile on her face. It looked like she was sleeping.”
He told how the couple met as children in Jamaica but lost contact when he moved to Britain in 2002 and reunited when he visited his home country in January 2020.
“She worked as a security guard and there was an instant spark,” he said. “It grew and grew. She was very quiet and reserved, but also very kind and loving.”
They married in Jamaica in May 2021 and she had planned to immediately live in Britain with her new husband, but Covid put a stop to that. Finally, in August 2022, she arrived here and the couple soon started trying to conceive.
They moved to their new home in October 2022, but Luke has not been able to return there since Karlene and his son died there.
“It breaks my heart that they are both gone,” he said. 'No funeral has taken place yet, but they will be laid to rest together.
“I will always miss them.”
Luke's best friend James Ramowski, who is raising money for their elderly parents to come from Jamaica to attend the funeral and for Luke's move, plus for him to get therapy, said: “[There is] post-traumatic stress as he watched his wife and child die in the home he had lovingly created for them, a home that meant a new life together.
'He can't go there anymore after everything that happened on that sad day, after what he saw.
“He will need professional guidance to deal with the trauma he has experienced. We believe we need to raise a minimum of £15,000 for all of the above.
“After just six months of happiness and time together in Britain, Luke's life and everything he lived for was destroyed in a matter of minutes.”
If you can help Luke, go to the GoFundMe that's set up.
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