Two mothers who died after giving birth may have caught an infection from the same surgeon during their caesareans, documents suggest.

Kimberly Sampson, 29, and Samantha Mulcahy, 32, died six weeks apart from an infection caused by the herpes virus after giving birth in two separate hospitals run by East Kent Hospitals Trust. 

A year after their deaths, which occurred in May and July 2018, their families were told there would be no inquest into the cases and there was “no connection” between them.

But documents, seen by the BBC, of an investigation by Public Health England (PHE) reveals they were, in fact, linked.

Partly redacted email chains between East Kent Hospitals Trust, a private lab called Micropathology and PHE show the same surgeon carried out the women’s C-sections and they were both cared for by the same midwife.

An email from a Micropathology employee sent two weeks after Ms Mulcahy died said both cases “look like surgical contamination” and asked the trust to provide swabs from the “suspect surgeon”, according to the BBC.

The broadcaster said the trust did not provide the swabs.