POLICE PROBE BOY’S DEATH AT CRISIS HOSPITAL
Minister under pressure as detectives investigate three-year-old’s death at unit where tragic Milly Main was killed by infected water
THE death of a three-year-old boy at a scandal-hit Scots superhospital is being investigated by police.
A major inquiry is under way at Glasgow’s Queen Elizabeth University Hospital (QEUH), The Scottish Mail on Sunday can reveal.
The boy, who was being treated for a rare genetic condition, died in the same month as a ten-year-old cancer patient whose death is linked to a water contamination scare at the hospital.
Police contacted the procurator fiscal shortly after the three-year-old’s death in the summer of 2017 – and inquiries are ongoing.
News of the probe will heap pressure on SNP Health Minister Jeane Freeman, who has been criticised for her handling of a string of crises at the QEUH and in the wider health service.
Revelations about the boy’s death come only days after separate claims that the ten-year-old,
Milly Main, a cancer patient in remission, died from an infection linked to contaminated water on the wards.
Concerns over standards at the hospital were also raised after it emerged earlier this year that two patients had died after contracting an infection linked to pigeon droppings.
The Scottish Mail on Sunday knows the identity of the toddler involved in this latest tragedy but has chosen not to identify him at the request of his family.
It is understood that the three-year-old – who died within days of Milly – was being treated on one of the wards which was closed because of fears over water contamination.
The boy’s mother told friends her son should not have been in the hospital in Glasgow and should have been treated elsewhere, and that the family were lied to about his treatment.
On social media, his devastated parent described the tot as her ‘angel boy’ and said she was ‘broken-hearted’ by his death.
A heartfelt message earlier this year said: ‘To the love of my life, I can’t believe it’s been two years since I last held you in my arms. I would do anything to have you here with me.
‘Mummy loves you so much and will carry you in my heart until we meet again.’
Yesterday, she declined to discuss the case while the investigation is ongoing.
However, the Crown Office confirmed police were called after the boy’s death.
A spokesman said: ‘The procurator fiscal has received a report in connection with the death of a three-year-old boy at the Queen Elizabeth University Hospital.
‘The investigation into the death, under the direction of Scottish Fatalities Investigation Unit (SFIU), is ongoing and the family will continue to be kept updated in relation to any significant developments.’ Officers from Police Scotland are understood to have alerted the fiscal in August 2017, soon after the toddler died, prompting an investigation which could result in criminal charges.
It is understood that expert reports from NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde (NHSGGC) are also being studied by the prosecutors.
Police Scotland yesterday confirmed that a report had been sent to the fiscal but declined to comment further.
The £842 million QEUH opened in 2015 but has been hit by scandals linked to the built environment.
A whistleblower claimed last week that a child with cancer died after catching an infection linked to the flagship hospital’s water supply. Grieving mother Kimberly Darroch then came forward to say she believed the child concerned was her daughter, Milly.
Ms Darroch, a 35-year-old carer, from Lanark, said Milly had been in remission from cancer and looking forward to coming home when she contracted an infection.
After more than two years at Glasgow’s Yorkhill Children’s Hospital, which closed in 2015, she was deemed cancer-free.
But when the disease returned, Milly was admitted to the QEUH – its campus includes the adjoining Royal Hospital for Children.
Ms Darroch said that she and her partner were never given any clear indication of what caused Milly’s death. She added: ‘I feel let down and lied to.’
Tests found the water supply at the QEUH and the Royal Hospital for Children had ‘widespread contamination’.
A Health Protection Scotland (HPS) inquiry found bacteria in taps and drains. It found 23 cases of children in two cancer wards acquiring bloodstream infections between January and September of last year.
The whistleblower claimed a further investigation by doctors found up to 26 cases of water supply infections in children in cancer wards in 2017 – but said those findings were covered It is claimed that stenotrophomonas bacteria had been found in the child who died.
The HPS report, focusing on 2018, found the bacteria was linked to 12 of the 23 infection cases.
The latest revelations came in a dramatic intervention by Labour MSP Anas Sarwar at First Minister’s Questions in the Scottish parliament on Thursday.
Detailing the allegations, he said: ‘This isn’t just a scandal, it’s a heartbreaking human tragedy.’
Following news of the cancer patient’s death last week, Ms Freeman admitted that she had known about the case for two months but did not tell the public, claiming that she had been tied by patient confidentiality.
But Ms Darroch said: ‘Of course there is patient confidentiality, but should that be kept from Milly’s parents? No.
‘She is a ten-year-old child. We are her parents. We deserve to know the truth.’
Scottish Tory health spokesman Miles Briggs said: ‘There’s no way Jeane Freeman can continue as Health Secretary. It shouldn’t take a whistleblower to drag the truth out of this SNP Government.’
Miss Freeman had previously announced a public inquiry into the construction of the QEUH and Edinburgh’s new children’s hospiup. tal – the opening of which has been delayed amid safety concerns.
Ms Darroch said she had written to Miss Freeman in September and urged her to look into her daughter’s case but said she was ‘shocked’ at the response.
She added that the reply did not answer any of her questions or give any information other than there would be a public inquiry.
Speaking about the health board, Ms Darroch said: ‘I think they knew prior to Milly’s death that the water
‘Mummy loves you... I’ll carry you in my heart until we meet again’
‘I want them to admit they’ve covered it up’
was contaminated and they knew that this was the infection that killed my daughter.’
She added: ‘I want an apology. And I want them to admit that they’ve covered it up.
‘I was getting to a point in life where I was able to face each day. It’s just opened it all up again.’
The source of the infection linked to pigeon droppings was previously traced to a 12th-floor room containing machinery where traces of excrement were found.
The Scottish Government said: ‘The death of any child is heartbreaking and we sympathise with their loved ones. An SFIU investigation is under way, so it would be inappropriate to comment further.’
ELECTION visits from UK party leaders are designed to boost a campaign; to give it extra energy and momentum. A bit of oomph, if you will. But they are also fraught with danger. Scotland is a pretty combative place when it comes to politics and more than one visitor from the South has fallen foul of a misstep when it comes to a devolved issue or a misspeak when it comes to phrasing.
In nearly eight years of leading the Scottish Conservatives, the nerves never really left me – and a power of work was put in to ensure a proper logistical plan was in place. We made sure the Number 10 team was fully briefed on all of the issues about which the Prime Minister was likely to be asked, and that time was taken one-on-one with the principal so that context and nuance could be explained.
The briefing on what not to say was always, always, always more important than the briefing on what the lines should be.
Things did not always go to plan. Occasionally Number 10 has its own ideas – Theresa May (whose snap election campaign was coming off the rails) visiting a removals company in Granton, Edinburgh, only hours before polling day springs to mind.
Sometimes there are just events that, quite correctly, knock a plan off course – such as David Cameron’s planned rallying cry at the Scottish party conference ahead of the 2011 Holyrood election having to be replaced by a sober explanation of why Britain had joined air strikes on Libya the night before.
But I have never seen anything so catastrophic and utterly selfdefeating as Jeremy Corbyn’s two-day Election tour in Scotland last week. If the plan was to give Scottish Labour’s sleepy campaign a shot in the arm, it failed spectacularly. More ‘ooft’ than ‘oomph’.
One thing the trip North had in its favour was that it definitely seized the news agenda. As I was speeding from seat to seat helping candidates campaign on the ground, the radio news bulletins were leading with a Church of Scotland minister heckling Mr Corbyn in Glasgow about whether a terrorist sympathiser should ever become prime minister.
Rev Richard Cameron followed up his volley at the Labour leader by asking him, if he did make it to Downing Street, who would be the first terrorists he would invite to the House of Commons.
GIVEN Mr Corbyn once defended the IRA and welcomed backers of Hamas to Parliament, it was brutal stuff. By the time the evening news came on, Mr Corbyn had been interviewed by Scottish journalists who – not unreasonably – wanted to hear from the wannabe PM what deal he would strike with Nicola Sturgeon over an independence referendum.
The answer he gave them was totally different from the answer he had given that morning.
Just a gentle reminder that this is quite a big deal, Mr Corbyn, and it would be good to know that
Labour has a fixed position. As his visit went on, he outlined two more positions on the timing of a potential second Indyref.
So shambolic was his performances that even Ms Sturgeon started mocking him outright.
On Twitter, the First Minister posted: ‘Yesterday, it was “not in the first term”. Today it’s “not in the first two years”. By the end of the week, at this rate, Corbyn will be demanding #indyref2020.’
Supporters of the Union will fear those words are all too accurate – a fear compounded by Mr Corbyn insisting to journalists he was not a Unionist. After last week, he shouldn’t worry about being mistaken for one.
Before departing for his North
London home, the Labour leader held a rally in Dundee and was heckled again for good measure, this time by a well-known independence activist.
Goodness knows why the protester wasn’t stopped at the door, rather than being ushered into a party event. Even the basics were falling apart.
As someone who has seen their fair share of political missteps, pratfalls and Scottish leaders attempting to escape the public by hiding in a sandwich shop, this Labour tour was a new level of catastrophe.
Calamity Corbyn came to Scotland to give the Labour campaign a boost. Supporters may be wishing he had stayed at home.