I held my wife’s hand as she died while cradling our newborn son – we had no idea she was slowly bleeding to death
WHEN Sean Scullion and his wife Tijanna found out they were pregnant last year, they were cautiously optimistic.
The couple had endured the heartache of a stillbirth in 2023 and were terrified history would repeat itself.
“We were quite nervous about things not going well after losing our daughter Sienna, but we were trying to stay positive,” Sean, 37, tells Sun Health.
And things appeared to be on track. Tijanna, 33, known as Tij to friends, was generally healthy, and thrilled at the thought of becoming a mother.
At 32 weeks, however, on January 22, 2025, everything changed.
“Tijanna had been in a lot of pain for two to three days,” Sean, from Manchester, says.
“It wasn’t just localised to one area, it was all across her back, so we went to the hospital for checks to see what was going on.”
Thankfully, doctors said the baby “seemed fine” and repeatedly told Sean and Tijanna: “We can’t see anything wrong.”
The mum-to-be and jewellery shop manager was kept in overnight as a precaution and Sean made his way home at about 11pm.
But just 90 minutes later, he got a call to say his wife had been moved to a delivery suite for an emergency C-section.
“I rushed back to the hospital, where I was told they’d found some anomalies in her blood, but they didn’t know what they were,” Sean, who married Tijanna in September 2022, says.
“The baby’s heartbeat had also started to slow a bit, so the combination of the two meant they thought the safest thing to do would be to deliver.”
He anxiously waited in the corridor, where he heard a surgeon say: “33-year-old female, internal bleeding.”
“I was thinking, ‘Oh God, that’s my wife,’ so I was obviously quite worried at this point,” Sean adds.
“About half an hour later somebody told me the baby had been delivered and seemed to be OK, so that was quite a relief.
“But when I asked about Tijanna, I was told, ‘There have been some complications, but we don’t really know any more’.”
Their son Nyjah was whisked off to intensive care and Tijanna remained in surgery for the next five hours. At about 5.30am, doctors said they needed to speak to Sean.
“I thought she’d died,” he recalls. “I didn’t understand why no one could tell me what was going on, so I asked, ‘Is she dead?’
“They replied, ‘No’, so I thought, ‘Thank God for that.’ But then they said they’d found internal bleeding.
“They assumed it was pregnancy related, but they couldn’t find a source so they had to call in different surgeons to work their way up her body to find where the bleeding was.
“Eventually, they discovered that her liver was completely covered in tumours, a lot of which were bleeding.
“She was in so much pain because she was essentially bleeding to death, and she was suffering multiple organ failure.”
My wife was screaming on every exhale, all day and all night, and I was terrified she was going to die that day
Sean Scullion
Tijanna was diagnosed with bowel cancer, which had spread across her liver.
One of the specialists managed to remove all of the bleeding tumours, but there were still “a large number” on her liver.
“There was a risk they could start bleeding in the next 24 hours. And if they did, there was very little they could do because they had already removed so much tissue from the liver,” Sean says.
“Because her body was shutting down, she was kept in an induced coma.”
Over the following weeks, her kidneys failed and she developed sepsis – a life-threatening reaction to an infection.
She also had an electrolyte imbalance, her bowels stopped working and her stomach was no longer absorbing food.
Sean wanted to be by his wife’s side as much as he could – but he also had a newborn.
As his son Nyjah was born eight weeks early, he was kept in the neonatal unit on ventilation, so he split his time between the two.
Eventually, to Sean’s relief, doctors decided to bring Tijanna out of the coma.
“I don’t know if I’ve watched too many films, but I thought she would just wake up,” he says.
“Instead, it took about four days, and she had what doctors described as ‘an extreme case of delirium’.
“She was herself, but it was like she’d lost the context of everything. She recognised me and her family, but she was out of it otherwise.
“She kept talking about things that weren’t happening, like travel insurance and getting things sorted for a holiday.
“No one knew what she was talking about but she was adamant, and it took another three to five days for her to return to normal.
“She still had sepsis, and they kept increasing the strength of her antibiotics until they were the strongest ones they could provide.
“Doctors said, ‘There’s nowhere to go from here’.”
DEVASTATING TWIST
Thankfully, the drugs worked, and Tijanna’s sepsis was brought under control.
She was then transferred from intensive care to a cancer ward, where she slowly began to regain her strength.
Tijanna was doing physiotherapy every day and “seemed to be making good progress”.
After about a week, she was told she was ready to start thinking about radiotherapy.
But a few days later, Sean was advised it was time to move her to end-of-life care as she likely had only a few weeks, possibly months, left.
“It was quite bizarre because she had energy and seemed like she was getting better,” Sean says.
“She was also seeing her son every day; the neonatal nurses did a really great job of memory making sessions, with hand and footprints and stuff like that.”
Then suddenly, another medic looked at Tijanna’s case and revealed she would probably die in the next 36 hours.
“The following day she was really unwell, sleeping most of the day,” Sean says.
“But then she rallied and was full of energy for several days around Valentine’s Day, so we made some nice memories together with our little boy.
“From then though, she started to wind down. I understood then that she was going to die, so I wanted it to be as peaceful as possible.
“I had a fold-out bed and was sleeping on the floor next to her, and we had a cot for our son in the room too.”
Close to the end of her life, nurses allegedly “lost control” of Tijanna’s pain management.
“It was no one’s fault, it was just the process of her dying, but for 18 hours, she was screaming on every exhale, all day and all night, and I was terrified she was going to die that day,” Sean says.
“Eventually her screaming started to get lighter, and I just weirdly hoped that she was going to pass away soon because I didn’t want her to be in pain again.”
Tijanna died on February 23, 2025 aged 33.
The signs of bowel cancer you need to know - remember BOWEL
- B:Bleeding
There are several possible causes of bleeding from your bottom, of blood in your poo.
Bright red blood could come from swollen blood vessels, haemorrhoids or piles, in your back passage.
Dark red or black blood could come from your bowel or stomach.
Blood in your stools is one of the key signs of bowel cancer, so it’s important to mention it to your doctor so they can investigate.
2. O: Obvious change in loo habits
It’s important to tell your GP if you have noticed any changes in your bowel habits, that lasts three weeks or longer.
It’s especially important if you have also noticed signs of blood in your poo.
You might notice you need to go to the loo more often, you might have looser stools or feel like you’re not going enough or fully emptying your bowels.
Don’t be embarrassed, your GP will have heard a lot worse! Speak up and get it checked.
3. W: Weight loss
This is less common than the other symptoms, but an important one to be aware of. If you’ve lost weight and don’t really know why, it’s worth mentioning to your GP.
You may not feel like eating, feel sick, bloated and not hungry.
4. E: Extreme tiredness
Bowel cancer that causes bleeding can cause a lack of iron in the body – anaemia. If you develop anaemia you’re likely to feel tired and your skin might look pale.
5. L: Lump or pain
As with lots of other forms of cancer, a lump or pain can be a sign of bowel cancer.
It’s most likely you’ll notice a pain or lump in your stomach or back passage.
See your GP if it doesn’t go away, or if it affects how you eat or sleep
“Her official time of death was 1.10pm, when the doctor confirmed it, but at 11.45am I was feeding our baby and I noticed her breathing was slowing,” Sean says.
“I held her hand, told her that I loved her, and let her go. She passed away peacefully as I’d hoped. I was relieved.”
There were just four weeks between her giving birth and passing away – something Sean still struggles to wrap his head around.
“We had no idea she was even a little bit sick,” he says. “There were no symptoms, not a single clue. She was just fine until she wasn’t.”
That said, he says his wife “almost lived like she wasn’t going to live forever”.
“It wasn’t in a reckless way, but she just always wanted to make memories with friends and family, and never wanted to let an opportunity pass to do something nice with the people she cared about most,” Sean, who met Tijanna at Manchester Metropolitan University in September 2009, adds.
“I know I’m biased as her husband, but she was the most positive, loving and moral woman.
“She would hold people to account, but it was always in a selfless, loving way.
“She was always a ball of energy and she just had such a zest for life.
“When we met, we had an instant connection and basically moved in together immediately and have barely spent a day apart ever since.
“We truly were best friends and soul mates.”
We didn’t know you could die of cancer and not even know you had it. I just want people to be aware that this can happen to anyone at any time
Sean Scullion
Sean, who praised the staff at Manchester Royal Infirmary for being “so incredible”, hopes by sharing his family’s story he might help prevent another going through the same pain.
About 44,000 people in the UK are diagnosed with bowel cancer every year. More than 16,000 die, according to Cancer Research UK.
While diagnoses overall are declining, rates are rising in under-50s.
Scientists reckon junk food diets, a lack of exercise and obesity are at least partly to blame – though they say more research is needed to understand exactly what’s causing this trend in younger people.
Sean is imploring others to be aware of the symptoms as early diagnosis saves lives.
The most common signs include:
- Changes in your poo, such as having softer poo, diarrhoea or constipation that is not usual for you
- Needing to poo more or less often than usual for you
- Blood in your poo, which may look red or black
- Bleeding from your bottom
- Often feeling like you need to poo, even if you’ve just been to the toilet
- Tummy pain
- A lump in your tummy
- Bloating
- Losing weight without trying
- Feeling very tired for no reason
But some people will have no symptoms at all.
Sean says: “I was surprised at how asymptomatic it was in Tijanna.
“I just want people to be aware that this can happen to anyone at any time.
“We didn’t know you could die of cancer and not even know you had it.
“If Tijanna hadn’t been pregnant, doctors wouldn’t have found it and been able to give her those extra weeks.
“She would have died from internal bleeding and organ failure within a few days, which is crazy. I’m so grateful that we got that extra bit of time.
“Even though I am devastated, there is some solace in that she got to meet our son and create some memories with him as being a mother was her biggest wish in life.
He adds: “Tijanna was very healthy. She ate whole foods, she was active, she loved lemon water and green smoothies.
“Doctors are doing tests to see if she had a genetic predisposition, but we won’t get the results for quite a while.”
“If you or somebody you know feels a bit weird, please get checked.”
Tijanna’s best friend Candice Bell has set up a JustGiving page to help cover the cost of her funeral and support Sean and little Nyjah.