They didn’t even contact trace me, reveals widow of Scotland’s f irst victim
THE widow of the first Scottish Covid-19 victim to be named publicly has condemned the Scottish Government’s handling of the crisis.
Eunice Cairns, 63, said that there had been no tracing and testing of those who had come into contact with her late husband Danny – including herself.
Mr Cairns, 68, was admitted to hospital after developing a soaring temperature and shortness of breath on March 23.
Three days later the ‘pillar of the community’ and local football team coach, from Greenock, Renfrewshire, had died.
Now his wife, a former nurse, fears Mr Cairns could have unknowingly spread the virus, as the couple had been out shopping and shaking hands with their church congregation days before he tested positive. She believes the Scottish Government should have continued contact tracing throughout Scotland’s Covid-19 crisis, in order to better contain the disease.
In heartbreaking testimony, Mrs Cairns has spoken of her devastation at losing her ‘best friend’ and described the pain of having to bury her husband during a socially distanced funeral.
Now, the grieving mother of three has also called on the Scottish Government to provide better support for those who have lost loved ones.
Her serious concerns around contact tracing comes as the Inverclyde area, which includes her home town, has been named the ‘death capital of the UK’.
The toll of fatalities in the area relating to coronavirus is nearly three times the national average.
Last night Mrs Cairns said: ‘We haven’t had anything about contact tracing, no one has asked who Danny had been in contact with. They should have contact-traced everyone because what if there was somebody who had been in contact with Danny? They could have been carriers and they could have then been in contact with lots of people too. I don’t think we’ll ever be able to eradicate this but we need to control its spread.’
Last night, Scots-born Denis Kinane, a professor of immunology at Geneva University in Switzerland, agreed with Mrs Cairns and said: ‘It would have been good if Mrs Cairns was told to speak to people she and Mr Cairns had been in contact with to make sure they were ultra-safe.
‘Inverclyde has been stunningly devastated by this virus.’
Mrs Cairns has said the couple had continued to go shopping and go to church prior to self-isolating at home with the youngest of their three sons, Daniel, 37, on March 16 owing to Mrs Cairns’s underlying health issues.
Although they were aware of the killer virus, Mrs Cairns would never have imagined her husband would fall victim to it. At a doctor’s check-up in February, the only concern raised about Mr Cairns’ health was that he was slightly overweight. Yet on the morning of March 23, Mr Cairns woke up with a high temperature and said he felt unwell. By the evening, paramedics arrived to take him to the Inverclyde Royal Hospital.
Two days after he was admitted, Mr Cairns’ condition had deteriorated so rapidly, a nursing sister said Mrs Cairns should come to the hospital to say goodbye.
Mrs Cairns, who had to wear full PPE to bid her husband farewell, said: ‘He opened his eyes and said, “Oh, honey pie I love you”, and he passed away at 5.05am on the Thursday morning. The important thing was he wasn’t on his own.’
Two weeks later, Mrs Cairns was forced to host a socially distanced funeral. Undertakers took Mr Cairns’ casket down to Gourock Baptist Church and sat outside with the hearse. In a moving tribute to a man who had been dedicated to his community, the congregation lined up in the street and each went to bid Mr Cairns goodbye. Although the community were supportive, Mrs Cairns said the Scottish Government could have done more. She said: ‘I feel as if we’re just back home and life is meant to go on as normal. They’re forgetting about the families that have lost a loved one. They say at these briefings their heart goes out to everyone but that doesn’t help. A letter of condolence would help.’
Mrs Cairns said she was also concerned that she had not heard from public health authorities to contact trace her and her family.
It comes as the Scottish Government has been slammed for not contact tracing a number of businesses linked to an outbreak of the virus at a Nike conference in Edinburgh in February. We revealed last week that two firms confirmed their staff developed coronavirus symptoms after coming into contact with delegates who attended the meeting at the Hilton Carlton Hotel in Edinburgh – but were never approached for contact tracing. Meanwhile, the Scottish Government’s new test, trace and isolate scheme, which will allow health bosses to track the spread of coronavirus as lockdown measures are lifted, has also been mired in controversy. More than 1,000 staff needed to carry out the strategy may not be in place by the end of the month as hoped.
‘We haven’t had anything about tracing’