The number of deaths which are being investigated over potential links into the hospital environment at a Glasgow super-hospital has risen to seven.
Molly Cuddihy, who was diagnosed with metastatic Ewing’s sarcoma when she was 15, died in August 2025 in the High Dependency Unit at Queen Elizabeth University Hospital (QEUH).
The 23-year-old’s death came seven years after she developed septic shock while being treated for cancer as a teenager at the Royal Hospital for Children and QUEH.
A doctor reported the 23-year-old’s death to prosecutors.
Ms Cuddihy’s case has now been passed to a specialist hospitals team within the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service (COPFS), who are also probing the deaths of Tony Dynes and Andrew Slorance.
COPFS is also investigating whether NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde should face prosecution for corporate homicide over the deaths of ten-year-old Milly Main, 73-year-old Gail Armstrong and two other children.
A spokesperson for COPFS said: “A thorough and independent investigation into the deaths is ongoing and the families will continue to be kept updated in relation to any significant developments.”
‘I was made sicker by the environment’
In 2021, Ms Cuddihy gave evidence to an inquiry investigating the construction of the QEUH campus, which includes the Royal Hospital for Children.
The Scottish Hospitals Inquiry was launched after issues at the flagship site were linked to the deaths of two children, including Milly.
In 2025, an independent review found the fatalities were at least in part the result of infections linked to the hospital environment.
Not long into her chemotherapy, Ms Cuddihy said her body went into septic shock – a life-threatening condition which occurs when blood pressure drops to a dangerously low level after an infection.
STV NewsShe was soon diagnosed with mycobacterium chelonae, an infection in her line that she later discovered came from the hospital environment – air or water-borne – and that had probably caused her temperature spikes and fits.
Ms Cuddihy told the inquiry she experienced “frightening” fits and said she had to take a “very strong” course of antibiotics she likened to bleach to treat the infection.
“I was made sicker by the environment,” she told the inquiry in October 2021.
“The medication had horrible side-effects. I thought chemo was bad, but this was something else.
“I got a prolonged QT interval with my heart. This is when my heart pumps out the blood, but then doesn’t fill up fast enough, so I would often collapse.”
Questions raised at Holyrood
Concerns about safety standards at the hospital have been repeatedly raised at Holyrood this week.
Both NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde and the Scottish Government have denied that there was political pressure to open the hospital campus before it was ready in 2015.
Scottish Labour leader Anas Sarwar has called for inquiry chairperson Lord Brodie to consider the actions of the Scottish Government in the commissioning, construction and opening of the QEUH.
He produced a document at FMQs on Thursday that he said showed there was “political pressure” to open the hospital.
Sarwar also accused First Minister John Swinney of misleading the Scottish Parliament, saying he “fabricated” a quote from the counsel to the Scottish Hospitals Inquiry.
In response, Swinney said the inquiry’s counsel had said there was no political pressure to open the hospital on time.
He told MSPs on Thursday: “The counsel to the inquiry said on the 23rd of January, in the summary, there is no evidence of external pressure on NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde to open the hospital early or before it was ready to be opened.
“That is what the counsel to the inquiry has said, and (inquiry chairman) Lord Brodie is obviously considering all of these issues.”
No deadline has been set for the delivery of Lord Brodie’s findings.
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