Mum falsely accused of trying to kill daughter
NIKI TENNANT
Medical watchdogs are investigating the head of Child Protection Services for a scandal-hit health board after a Cambuslang mum was falsely accused of trying to murder her disabled daughter.
Kirsteen Cooper, 42, was arrested and placed in a cell overnight, after staff at Royal Hospital for Children (RHC) in Glasgow wrongly alleged she had stolen blood from her daughter Baillie to make her anaemic.
Medical watchdogs are now looking into a complaint lodged by Kirsteen regarding Wendy Mitchell, who has been chief nurse and head of child protection service at the troubled NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde since 2016.
The health board was last month placed under special measures following the deaths of two children in 2017, at the RHC.
The complaint to the Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) claims Mitchell allegedly helped put together a damning and inaccurate haematology report which led to Kirsteen’s arrest and a two-year ordeal of limited contact with her daughter.
Baillie, seven, who uses a wheelchair, has cerebral palsy and has to be fed by tubes into her gut and artery.
She was a patient at the RHC – which is part of the £842million Queen Elizabeth University Hospital.
The hospital is the focus of a public inquiry over safety fears, patient deaths from infections and a water contamination scandal.
The complaint states the report was used to back up claims Kirsteen had Fabricated or induced illness (FII) formerly known as Munchausen’s Syndrome by Proxy, the controversial theory that some mums harm their children to draw attention to themselves.
Charges against Kirsteen were dropped and she was completely vindicated at a Children’s Hearing last year.
But the mum-of-three was forced to spend a night in a jail cell in July 2017 and charged with attempted murder, a devastating allegation which made her suicidal.
Kirsteen said: “I was in disbelief as to how this could be happening to an innocent person. I can never explain the pain I felt. I wanted to die. I was terrified. I couldn’t stand it, locked up, lying on a cell floor with nothing but a brick wall and a toilet.
“My daughter was born with unfortunate illnesses.
“To be accused of basically stealing Baillie’s blood totally repulsed me. My children are my life and to be accused of that, nothing could be worse.”
The criminal case was never pursued after a Police Scotland commissioned blood expert, consultant paediatric haematologist Russell Keenan of Alderhey Hospital in Liverpool, concluded Baillie’s anaemia was caused by her complex illness.
In the complaint, Kirsteen and her lawyers say the report was cobbled together using extracts from Baillie’s medical reports, without being overseen by a relevant expert in haematology.
Baillie, who had a rare and complicated medical history since birth, had been admitted to RHC in December 2016, after a sixmonth period with regular infections and stays in hospital.
In the submissions to the NMC, Kirsteen said the Child Protection investigation only came to light on January 26, 2017, after she made a formal complaint to the hospital, claiming there were serious issues with hygiene, including Baillie’s room being left uncleaned for several days.
Kirsteen said she was told she could not get a response to the hygiene complaint because of the child protection probe. The hospital wrote to her only last week to confirm they would give a formal response to the complaint she submitted almost three years ago.
On February 2, 2017, Baillie’s feeding tube leaked and Kirsteen was accused by staff of tampering with it, and removed from hospital by police and social work.
The NMC complaint says Baillie was so hysterical, she had to be prised off Kirsteen, who fell to her knees in despair.
She said no concerns about her handling of Baillie’s care were raised with her before the intervention.
The following day, she was allowed only two hours’ contact with her daughter which was gradually increased to 11 hours over the months Baillie was in hospital.
She was not allowed to change her nappy, brush her hair, change her clothes or give her a bath and could only cuddle her with supervision.
On May 5, 2017, Baillie was discharged but on condition she would stay with Kirsteen’s mum, Anna, and her sister, Lorraine.
Apart from two nights over Christmas 2017, Baillie was not allowed to finally return to Kirsteen’s home until February 2018, nine months after her discharge.
In January 2018, Kirsteen had to attend a Children’s Referral Hearing at Glasgow Sheriff Court. The case took almost a year to complete and all allegations against Kirsteen were withdrawn 12 months ago.
A spokesman from NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde said it had been informed no criminal proceeding are being taken against Kirsteen.
The spokesman said: “The board acknowledges that intimation of a NMC referral has been received by them, relating to one of their employees.”
To be accused of that, nothing could be worse