Warwick Davis was left devastated after his wife, Samantha Davis, died just hours before she was due to be discharged from hospital last year. An inquest this week determined that the actress, 53, died of a cardiac arrest following complications from an essential surgery. Just a few years before Samantha’s passing, Warwick, 55, found himself contemplating a future without his wife after she fell seriously ill ahead of a family caravan holiday in 2019. Samantha was convinced it was nothing serious at first, but when she became unable to stand, the couple realised something wasn’t right.

Speaking to The Sun in 2022, the Harry Potter star recalled how a doctor diagnosed Samantha’s condition as sepsis and urged them to rush to A&E “immediately”. Sepsis causes inflammation throughout the entire body and can lead to the immune system damaging your body’s tissues and organs. Sepsis can develop into severe sepsis or septic shock if it isn’t treated in hospital immediately. Septic shock can cause your organs to fail and this is life-threatening.

At the hospital, doctors were concerned about a scar on Samantha’s back from her recent spinal surgery that was “inflamed with fluid, red, and hot to touch”.

After doctors took samples of her fluid, they found the deadly A Streptococcus bacteria and a meningitis infection. It was then that the family was told “Sam could die” without immediate treatment.

Warwick recalled: “Our family gathered by her bedside; although optimistic, we were sort of saying goodbye in case Sam didn’t survive.” The surgery was successful, but Samantha’s battle continued as she spent crucial hours in intensive care, receiving antibiotics to combat the infection.

Samantha pulled through and was cared for by her Warwick, who prepared vials of antibiotics to administer into his wife’s heart via a drip.

Warwick reflected on the harrowing ordeal, sharing: “I broke down every night thinking that this terrible illness that came out of nowhere might take my soulmate away from me. To this day, Sam still feels the effects of sepsis and some PTSD from her experience.

“If I’m completely honest, I do too. We never take life for granted now, living each day as if it were our last. I appreciate and cherish every moment that Sam and I spend together.”

Samantha’s health woes escalated in February 2024 when an unexpected disc prolapse led to her hospitalisation, according to BBC News. Surgeons performed a thoracotomy – a procedure that involves opening the chest wall.

After a second thoracotomy the following month, there were hopeful signs of recovery and plans to discharge Samantha from hospital. However, the mum-of-two went into cardiac arrest and was pronounced dead early in the morning on March 24, 2024.

Professor Fiona Wilcox, Senior Coroner for Inner West London, concluded at Samantha’s inquest: “I am satisfied that the medical cause of death should be arrhythmic cardiac arrest and complications following left thoracotomies.”

The Senior Coroner for Inner West London, Professor Fiona Wilcox, said: “I am satisfied that the medical cause of death should be arrhythmic cardiac arrest and complications following left thoracotomies. In my view, the stress of everything together has precipitated this arrhythmic cardiac arrest in a lady who was not known to have any previous arrhythmia problems.”

She continued: “I have found nothing but excellent care being delivered to this lady and all of her complications were appropriately managed. It is frankly heartbreaking that the surgery itself was successful only for complications to arise and to cause her death.”

Warwick and his late wife had known each other for almost four decades, having met when Samantha was just 17. They share two children, Annabelle, 28, and 22-year-old Harrison.