Deadly string of infections at super-hospital

THE Daily Record has been at the forefront of exposing the infection scandals at the Queen Elizabeth University Hospital campus in Glasgow.

In March 2018, we told how three youngsters receiving cancer treatment at the Schiehallion Unit of the Royal Hospital for Children became infected.

Six months later, two wards were closed after six youngsters were infected and 22 children were moved into the adjoining adult Queen Elizabeth University Hospital.

This time the drains were investigated as a possible source of the outbreak.

The following year one of the young cancer patients, a 10-year-old boy being treated in the QEUH, died of cryptococcus – an infection thought to be related to pigeon droppings.

A 73-year-old woman also tested positive and later died.

However, the health board insisted her death was due to an unrelated cause.

But three more patients became infected with other fungal infections, one of whom, Mito Kaur, 63, died on March 14 from the mucor fungus.

Later that year further harrowing details came to light which showed that the infection scandal was much more deep rooted than had been previously thought. In November 2019, the Daily Record revealed a whistleblower had alleged that an internal doctor-led inquiry focusing on 2017 found another 26 cases of infection linked to the water supply – including in a child who had died.

Kimberly Darroch had no idea about the infection until she read the story in the Record but quickly realised that the child was her 10-year-old daughter Milly Main, who had caught a stenotrophomonas infection when she was in remission for cancer and ready to return home.

Jeane Freeman, who was the health secretary in 2019, announced there would be a public inquiry into the hospital but the proceedings had already been going a year when another infection scandal was discovered.

Widow Louise Slorance revealed she had not been told about a deadly bug mentioned in her husband Andrew’s notes.

Andrew, who had cancer, actually worked at the heart of government as a civil servant.

Louise accused hospital chiefs of “deliberately concealing information”.

a woman, 73, also tested positive and died Daily RecoRD on scandal-hit hospital