Teenage cancer patient forced to stop chemo early as rare hospital infection leaves skin lesions over all her body

It is the latest in a series of problems at the £842m flagship site, which is now subject to a public inquiry following the outbreak of Cryptococcus from bird droppings - a factor in the death of a 10-year-old boy.

For the first time, a family have chosen to speak out and demand answers, after their teenage daughter became infected with one of the rare bacteria while being treated at the QEUH.

Stevie-Jo Kirkpatrick, 15, has been battling leukaemia for six years, but has had to have her chemotherapy stopped early after contracting the rare infection.

Her parents say they are angry, scared and anxious about what the infection will mean for their daughter, and have questioned why they were told she was safe just weeks before she became infected.

This week they met HANNAH RODGER to speak about their anxieties and concerns about the hospital.

A FAMILY whose child has had to have her chemotherapy stopped after contracting an infection at Glasgow’s super hospital has accused health bosses of misleading them about the safety of the site.

Stevie-Jo Kirkpatrick, 15, has been left with untreatable lesions all over her body after becoming infected with a rare bacterium – Mycobacterium chelonae – from the water supply at the Queen Elizabeth University Hospital (QEUH).

The teenager has huge infected sores on her arms, chest and legs due to the rare bug, which is related to the same bacteria which causes tuberculosis.

Along with putting a halt to her chemotherapy six months early, the youngster now has to have fortnightly blood tests, put daily dressings on her wounds and will almost certainly be left with lifetime scars.

Weeks before she contracted the bacteria, NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde bosses and health secretary Jeane Freeman told her parents that their daughter was safe and the hospital was not a risk.

Her mum Annemarie Kirkpatrick has questioned the reassurances, and has called for "complete honesty" about the hospital problems.

Read more: Jeane Freeman reassured family of hospital safety weeks before teenager contracted rare infection

In May, after Stevie-Jo's infection was identified, medics told her Annemarie that only one antibiotic was available to treat it but the side effects were severe.

They said the 15-year-old would become resistant quickly, so they were left with no choice but to leave it untreated.

Medics also said they would have to stop the teenager's chemotherapy six months early to allow her immune system recover.

Her dad Steven, 47, and Annemarie, 35, are now afraid their daughter could relapse, and have been left "angry, scared and anxious" for Stevie-Jo, who was first diagnosed with leukaemia at the age of nine.

Speaking to the Herald on Sunday, criminology student Annemarie from Dumfries said: "I think the hospital hierarchy sitting in offices need to come down and actually meet with the parents. I don't think they are appreciating what these kids go through just to stay alive.

"They are getting toxins, poison, pumped through them very single day to save their lives, and the hospital is putting them in more danger. The kids should be getting better, they shouldn’t be getting these infections from the hospital.

"The consultants and nurses, we feel, are getting the brunt of this and it's not their fault. They've worked above and beyond to save my daughter's life, and the lives of many other children."

Stevie-Jo was first treated in Glasgow's Yorkhill hospital when she was diagnosed with leukaemia in 2013.

She relapsed in July 2017, exactly a year after her first bought of treatment finished and was admitted to the Royal Hospital for Children at the QEUH site.

Her mum explained: "To start with she was totally fine, but she got quite a few spiked temperatures. That can happen with the chemotherapy, but then she started getting weird things.

"For some reason, we don’t know why, she needed oxygen. She got an infection, it never came back what it was but when she was walking she needed oxygen.

"We got home a few days before Christmas in 2017, but she ended up back in hospital, she had para-flu.

"She hasn’t had much time out of the hospital to be honest since then."

On Christmas day last year, the teenager was rushed to the QEUH after scans shows Stevie-Jo had an infection in her brain, which turned out to be listeria meningitis. Her family thought they might lose her for good.

She spent eight weeks in hospital recovering, first in intensive care then in ward 6A at the QEUH, which has now been closed to new admissions following concerns about water-related infections.

It was during this time her mum thinks she picked up the Mycobacterium chelonae infection, which medics later confirmed had come from the hospital water supply.

As revealed by the Herald on Sunday, three children with cancer have been struck down by infections on the same ward, 6A, in the last few months with at least one of the infections linked to the water supply.

NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde said two of the infections were rare but there was no evidence that they were related to the hospital environment, but further investigations are ongoing.

As a result health chiefs closed the ward to new admissions, with patients understood to be now travelling to Edinburgh and Aberdeen for treatment.

Annemarie explained: "I think people who are making the decision to keep children in that hospital when they know something is wrong, its unbelievable. It’s not right.

"They hopefully have never had to deal with a child who has cancer, that is bad enough, but to be worrying constantly that.

"They think the infection came from when they were removing the central line [a tube inserted in the chest to administer medication] in surgery, it got through that way.

"The water they are using in surgery should be sterile, so who knows how it was infected with this Mycobacterium.

"It has had a huge effect on her, both physically and mentally. She has to keep the lesions covered up, so during the summer it was terrible as it was so hot and she had to cover everything.

"She won't take part in PE at school, as she doesn't want to change in front of people or let anyone see her. She loves football, but she can't play that or go swimming because she doesn't want people to look at her.

" It's just horrible. The worst part is, she will probably be scarred for life from these when they do heal. She's had them since April and really they're not getting much better. We've tried all sorts of things but as she can't have the antibiotic that treats it, and her immune system is weakened because of her cancer, we don't know when they're going to heal properly.

"It's been four months already."

Annemarie first started becoming concerned about the safety of the hospital when a child died following a Cryptococcus infection linked to bird droppings.

The 10-year-old boy, who was being treated for cancer, became infected with the fungus which was later linked to his death.

Stevie-Jo was being treated at the hospital around the time of the outbreak.

Annemarie explained: " When the Cryptococcus incident happened, before it came out in the press, we noticed that there were all these HEPA filters in the ward and one night they came round and were checking the showers.

"I had asked for a meeting with Stevie-Jo's consultant and the infection control doctor and asked what was going on, they told me everything is fine. They said it wasn’t in this ward but patients within the hospital who have caught a fungal infection.

"I asked if Stevie-Jo was at risk, and they said her immune system wasn’t compromised enough to be at risk. I don’t know how they could say that given her immune system is absolutely zero, and they’ve had to take her off the chemo to try and improve it."

"I felt like at the time they weren’t telling me the truth. It feels like they were trying to minimise what the risks were. I can understand trying to reassure parents, of course, but if you are not being fully truthful about the safety of the hospital that’s a different thing. There’s no point in reassuring people when they don’t actually know what they are saying is true."

Annemarie said Stevie-Jo now "dreads" going to the hospital for treatment or tests, and has frequently pointed out to her the differences between the new hospital and the old wards at Yorkhill, where she was treated initially for her leukaemia.

She said: " The new hospital, it has a feeling, you can tell something is not right. The kids are always in 'source' - that's when they’re not allowed out of their rooms due to infection.

"Stevie-Jo commented on this the other day. In the old Yorkhill, if kids had a cold obviously they had to go into source to protect the other kids, but most of the time they were out of their rooms, in the playroom or going up and down the corridors.

"Since they’ve moved to the new hospital they are always in source, someone has always got something. Stevie-Jo asked if I had noticed it. You don’t see kids up and down the corridors like you used to at Yorkhill, it's just a completely different atmosphere.

"The adult hospital is worse as there are no facilities for the children really and for parents, you can't even make a cup of tea. The kids there really are just in their rooms all the time, it's not a relaxing environment.

"Somebody needs to take responsibility. They need to be honest about the risks and the severity of the problem, and stop thinking that parents are stupid.

"If they were straight up and honest, people could understand and know they are trying to do something. Just now it feels like they are trying to wipe everything, sweep it under the carpet and hope it goes away, but its not going to go away.

"They have already had a child who has lost their life, there’s children who are having to come off chemotherapy and are not getting rid of the infections. Where does it end? When do we say ‘enough is enough’?

"The reality is, these children are very sick. They are struggling and fighting to stay alive as it is. I would never want anyone to ever experience having a child with cancer, but I don’t think people appreciate how hard that is on its own, without the added stress of the problems and the fear of hospital.

"You should never be afraid of taking your child to hospital, but parents are. They don't know if they are going to come out with an infection, or if they are coming out at all. It needs to change. "

An NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde spokesman said: "The risk of infection can never be completely eliminated and some people have a higher chance of acquiring an infection than others. Our responsibility when caring for our patients is to assess that risk and to put in place appropriate measures to stop infection or prevent its spread.

The infection rates within ward 6A are consistent with infection rates at the old Yorkhill Hospital. This is in keeping with recognised background rates which are approximately two-three per month. These rates have been reported and scrutinised at our public board meetings.

"There is nothing to link the infections to the ward’s infection control practices or the environment.

"In one case, we found the type of bacteria to be widespread in the general domestic water supply and in the water supply to public buildings.

"As a further precaution to our well established infection control practices, we therefore extended the fitting of point of use filters on taps to other areas of the hospital.

"We have been committed throughout to keeping all parents/carers informed of the work we have undertaken to enhance the environment on the ward. Ward 6A remains closed to new admissions as a precaution. "