HOSPITAL SCANDAL: Child was so sick on the drugs he burned all the enamel off his teeth

Kimberley Darroch, mother of patient Milly Main who died, pictured with Scottish Labour leader Anas Sarwar.

by Bill Heaney

Scottish Labour leader Anas Sarwar claimed today (Thursday) that  devastated families have been searching for answers for years to the Queen Elizabeth University Hospital scandal.

Mr Sarwar told the Scottish Parliament: “As everyone in this parliament knows, that hospital was opened before it was safe and children and adults died as a result.

“John Swinney said the first time the government knew about problems at the hospital was March 2018. But even after that date the government were denying the scale of the problem.

“While there has been understandable focus on the lives lost, there were many others harmed.

“Prophylaxis – powerful anti-infection drugs – are typically used short term, but for many children at the hospital they were prescribed for prolonged periods as long as 9 months with side effects.

“Parents were told this was standard treatment, not connected to the hospital environment – they were they lied to.

“There has been a group of victims whose story has not been told enough so far.

“These families believe that their children have been left with life-long debilitating conditions as a result of prolonged use of these drugs, due to infection risks caused by the hospital environment.

“I want to share some of these cases today, all after March 2018.

“Aneeka’s daughter Eshaal, nine, who wakes up most mornings screaming, clutching her stomach in pain.

“Karen’s son Caleb, 10, who has chronic tummy pains, incontinence issues and struggles to walk.

“Leann’s son William, 13, who was so sick on the drugs he burned all the enamel off his teeth.

“Charmaine’s daughter Paige, 9, who has pain in her limbs and severe stomach issues so can’t go to school.

“Her parents told me there is a culture of cover-ups and that people were playing God with children’s lives.

“I asked the families what they would ask if they could stand here and face John Swinney.

“Mark whose daughter Charly, is 14 and already started the menopause said simply, ‘I would ask – John Swinney – how do you sleep at night?’

“All the families whose tragic stories I have shared are here today are standing up right now because they have spent years having to stand up for themselves against a government and a system that has misled them and treated them appallingly.

“Cover ups, secrecy, misdirection and downright deception with tragic consequences.

Aneeka Sohrab, pictured left, says parents like her were not given the correct information about medications.

“They want the truth about what happened to their children, and they want no other family to suffer like they have.

“John Swinney has referenced the public inquiry. But he knows the public inquiry is not looking at individual cases and therefore cannot give the answers these families deserve.

“There must be a genuinely independent expert panel, not connected to the health board or the government, to look at each of these cases on an individual basis, allow each these families to ask all the questions they have, get the answers they need and the truth they deserve.”

 See comments (made indirectly to the First Minister and taken from a press release issued today by Scottish Labour) from families below: 

Charmaine Lacock, mother of Paige Rawson (9)

Paige Rawson was in hospital between August 2018 and November 2020 for Acute lymphoplastic luekemia. She received extended prophylaxis for just over 8 months between August 2018 to March 2019. It has affected her hearing and eyesight, caused sore legs, severe gut issues and pain. They were told she would grow out of it but it is getting worse rather than better.

Charmaine Lacock said to John Swinney “Every day you are putting more and more children and adults in this position. We’re here today but unless you start telling the truth there will be more families facing these challenges and more children robbed of their future. If the hospital is safe why are children and adults using bottled water and why are children still on prophylaxis?

Commenting on the fact the Scottish Government has claimed it was made aware of these issues in March 2018, she said “These alerts were sent to the Scottish government. A year and a half before Paige was diagnosed you knew there was a danger in that hospital, they have already taken a risk with our child’s life. Medical Staff told us the environment and infections would be more likely to kill our child rather than the cancer. There is a culture of cover ups, people are playing God with our children’s lives.”

Mark Bissett, father of Charly Bisset (14) 

Charly Bisset was in hospital July to December 2019 for leukaemia treatment, including a bone marrow transplant. She was on extended prophylaxis July 2019 to March 2020. She is now adrenaline insufficient – a life altering condition that requires her to take hormone injections.

Mark Bisset said “You just trust what they tell you. But to me they are still lying to us, it’s left me angry. To find out that they shouldn’t be taking those drugs, we were told this is was part of the treatment and it was anywhere in the UK if you have cancer, and you don’t question it but it just wasn’t true.”

Speaking to John Swinney, he said “How do you sleep at night?”

Commenting on the fact the Scottish Government has claimed it was made aware of these issues in March 2018, he said “That is just barefaced lies, the first time we went into that hospital it was a Sunday afternoon and the first thing the nurses told us in the room was that you drank out the bottles of water not from the tap. This was July 2019 so they were still lying then.”

Aneeka Sohrab, mother of Eshaal Iman Hammad (9) 

Eshaal Iman Hammad was diagnosed with acute lymphoblastic lymphoma type B with MLL rearrangement on 10th May 2018 and treatment was ongoing until May 2020. She was on extended prophylaxis for around 8 months, and now suffers from severe stomach pain, stunted growth and poor hearing. 

Speaking to John Swinney, Aneeka Sohrab said “What can you say and do to reassure people the hospital is safe now, and what measures are in place to show children aren’t still being prescribed these drugs?

“Immunecomprimised children and their carers were sharing an elevator with covid infected patients – what safeguards were out in place at that time to protect these children?”

Karen Stirrat, mother of Caleb Stirrat (10) 

Caleb Stirrat, 10 years old, was in hospital at various points  between February 2019 and December 2019, and May 2020 and October 2022 for a brain tumour. Caleb was treated in America for three months in the Spring of 2019. He was on extended prophylaxis between March 2019 and December 2019, bar the period spent in America when clinicians told them it was not required. He suffers chronic stomach pain and incontinence issues, weakness in his legs, difficulty walking and fatigue. 

Karen Stirrat said “We were shunned in there for so long after speaking out. No one wanted to know us. I can’t understand how they have got away with this. No one told us we were in the adult part of the hospital. It was like a third world country. They tried to pull the wool over our eyes and made us feel stupid.”

Speaking to John Swinney, she said “If he is saying this hospital is safe why won’t he disclose the papers. Why are they going to an oversight board and not the public to build public confidence. Why the dragging of the feet?

“If the government wasn’t aware of the risk to these kids for this prescribing, why weren’t they? No one knows the full truth because you hid it with medication which only made them sicker.” 

Commenting on the fact the Scottish Government has claimed it was made aware of these issues in March 2018, she said “I feel angry that they choose to lie to us and cover-up the issues given we went to numerous meetings where they denied all knowledge and tried to make us feel like we were paranoid parents knowingly concealing everything from us whilst allowing our child to suffer.” 

Leann Young, mother of William Young (13) 

William Young was diagnosed with Stage 4 Birkitts lymphoma aged six and was in hospital April to October 2018. He was on extended prophylaxis for six months while on the ward and at least three months afterwards. He now suffers from extreme sickness multiple times a day.

Leann Young said “Make you feel helpless. When you go through the treatment and you aren’t thinking about several years down the line, you are just trying to get through each day. This will affect him for the rest of his life.”

Speaking to John Swinney she said “Why have you allowed a hospital that isn’t safe, why have you out all these people at risk. I don’t want to go in there with the added stress of him picking up an infection, You don’t take your child into hospital to get worse you take them in to get better.” 

Commenting on the fact the Scottish Government has claimed it was made aware of these issues in March 2018, she said “Whilst we were in the hospital William had an infection which delayed his chemotherapy by around 3 weeks. Never told the name if the infection and only when I requested his medical records I say there was a suspicion of sepsis and he had a positive test aspergillus, We were never told.”

• The two hospitals on the QEUH campus serve patients in West Dunbartonshire and Argyll and Bute.