NHS chiefs must quit over my girl’s death
Report confirms cancer patient ‘probably’ died after catching water-linked bug Mum and Labour leader Sarwar call for heads to roll over negligence
A MUM has demanded health board bosses resign after a report said her daughter Milly Main, 10, died after “probably” catching a water-linked infection in hospital.
TRAGIC 10-year-old Milly Main died after “probably” catching a water-linked infection at Glasgow’s super-hospital, an official report has confirmed.
Milly’s mum Kimberly Darroch said she is “heartbroken” at the expert verdict and called for senior health board figures to resign.
She said: “They’ve caused my daughter’s death because of their negligence.”
Scottish Labour leader Anas Sarwar, who has fought for justice for Milly’s family, said: “What has happened here is criminal. Heads need to roll.” Milly, who was a patient at the Royal Hospital for Children at the QEUH campus, had been in remission from leukaemia in 2017 when her catheter became infected.
She died days later. Stenotrophomonas maltophilia, a bacterium found in water, soil and plants, was referred to on her death certificate.
A 2019 NHS report found “widespread contamination” in the water supply in both hospitals and 23 kids contracted bloodstream infections in cancer wards between January and September 2018.
As revealed by the Record, a whistleblower approached Sarwar and alleged there had been other cases in 2017. It was claimed that one of the children with cancer died after contracting an infection and Kimberly came forward to say she believed it was Milly.
At the time, Kimberly said she was convinced the hospital water supply was behind the infection but the health board had said it was impossible to determine the source of Milly’s infection.
A report specifically on Milly’s case from an independent expert panel set up by the Government has now provided answers.
The report posed the question of whether it was possible to link Milly’s stenotrophomonas infection with the environment of the RHC/ QEUH. It concluded: “Based on the information available to us we considered that this infection was probably related to the hospital environment.”
It added: “The fact that Milly had been continuously an inpatient in Ward 2A for seven weeks prior to this infection, also suggests hospital environmental acquisition.” However, the report said there was “insufficient data to identify a specific source”. On the impact of the infection and how serious it was, the report concluded that on balance it “must have made
a contribution”. The report said it seems “entirely possible the stenotrophomonas infection caused a critical further deterioration in heart function”. Kimberly told the Record of her reaction to reading the report: “It was like grieving Milly in a whole new way, knowing her death could have been prevented. “I always hoped it probably wasn’t true. Deep down in my heart I knew it was, so getting it in black and white, it was a devastating read.” She added: “I am 100 per cent certain Milly’s infection came from the water.” Kimberly, who has repeated her call for a fatal accident inquiry, said of the health board:
“I still feel like they’re not taking responsibility even though they say they have.”
Asked what she wanted to happen, she said: “It would be that the health board that are in place just now resign. That’s what I want and I think that’s only fair.”
She also hit out at the Scottish Government for signing off on the hospital opening. She said: “If they had made the decision about Glasgow as they did about Edinburgh we wouldn’t be having this conversation.
“They are in part responsible for this.” Sarwar, who has raised the Milly case with Nicola Sturgeon, said of the report: “Why did it take us having to expose this in Parliament?” There is something seriously and systematically wrong at the heart of the health board. There is something seriously and systematically wrong at the heart of Government.
“If this had happened in another place, it would be treated as a crime scene.”
Jane Grant, chief executive of NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde, said: “Whilst we have taken robust and focused action to respond to issues, and at all times made the best judgments we could, we accept there are times when we should have done things differently.
“The issues which arise will be part of the Scottish Hospitals Public Inquiry. The board welcomes the inquiry and will participate fully in that process.”