MY TERRIFYING FITS AT BUG HOSPITAL

A TEENAGER diagnosed with a rare cancer suffered ‘frightening’ fits that were linked to a hospitalacquired infection, an inquiry heard yesterday.

Molly Cuddihy was told she had a tumour in her ribs, aged 15, and was treated at the Royal Hospital for Children and the Queen Elizabeth University Hospital (QEUH) in Glasgow between January 2018 and 2020.

Soon after treatment began, Miss Cuddihy, now 19, said she went into septic shock – a life-threatening condition that can happen after an infection – and had rigors, episodes in which body temperature rises.

Miss Cuddihy was found to be infected with mycobacterium chelonae, a bug in her central line for chemotherapy. She later discovered it came from the hospital environment – air or water-borne – and had probably caused her symptoms.

Miss Cuddihy said she had to take a ‘very strong’ course of antibiotics.

She added: ‘The medication had horrible side-effects. I thought chemo was bad but this was something else. I would often collapse.’

The Scottish Hospitals Inquiry is investigating the construction of the QEUH campus after issues at the flagship site were linked to the deaths of two children. Earlier this year, an independent review found the fatalities were at least in part the result of infections linked to the hospital environment.

Miss Cuddihy told the hearing how her doctor, paediatric oncologist Dr Jairam Sastry, had to liaise with a specialist in Edinburgh about her treatment because no one ‘knew and understood what this bug was’.

She said: ‘Dr Sastry was being held responsible for something which should not have happened.’

The inquiry was told of a visit by Miss Cuddihy’s brother when her body went into septic shock.

She said: ‘It was a frightening situation. I was conscious that he was seeing me at my sickest.’

She added: ‘My brother had to open 17 syringes to help, to get as much liquid into me as possible’.

The inquiry in Edinburgh, chaired by Lord Brodie, continues.