Widow 'may never know the truth about her husband's death' at Glasgow's Queen Elizabeth University Hospital

A widow whose husband died after contracting infections while being treated at Glasgow’s Queen Elizabeth University Hospital has said she may “never know the exact truth” about what happened.

Tony Dynes, who had lymphoma, died in May 2021 after being admitted for treatment at the hospital campus.

His death is one of six being further investigated amid ongoing concerns over the hospital’s safety and ventilation system.

Tony’s wife, childminder Maureen Dynes, says she only discovered the extent of her husband’s infections after his death and still has unanswered questions about how he became unwell.

“I’ll never know the exact truth of what happened,” she told STV News. “Nobody knows if he hadn’t contracted infections, whether he would have survived his cancer treatment, whether it would have been successful.

“Nobody knows, but if it was safe and the water was safe, how did he contract this infection?”

Tony was first admitted to the QEUH in September 2020 for a stem cell transplant. While on the ward, he twice contracted aspergillus – an infection associated with dust and soil.

In March the following year, Tony returned for immunotherapy. Unknown to Maureen at the time, he developed another bacterial infection and never came home.

Maureen said Tony’s health deteriorated rapidly after learning his cancer treatment had not worked.

“When Tony was told that his cancer treatment hadn’t worked, he said he wanted to go home,” Maureen explained.

“He went downhill really, really quickly and within a day or two, he said he wanted to stay in the hospital. His speech wasn’t great, and he said, ‘because I feel safe’. I think he’d be saddened that he wasn’t told the truth.“

Months after Tony’s funeral, Maureen said a press conference prompted her to look again at what happened – and to review her husband’s medical notes.

“I remember it as clear as day,” she said. “I was in the kitchen, and I ran in and rewound the news. I thought that’s the same time as Tony. I still didn’t know what Aspergillus was then. How many other people out there don’t know?”

She said she then discovered details in his file that she believes should have been communicated to the family.

“There was a note in Tony’s file, and it said Public Health England. I thought that’s really unusual. Why are we getting a test result from a laboratory in England?

“It said Stenotrophomonas maltophilia on it, and I was like ‘wow’. So that was when I discovered that one. But no contact at all from NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde, nothing.”

The infection Stenotrophomonas maltophilia has previously been linked to the QEUH site.

Ten-year-old Milly Main contracted the same infection four years earlier at the children’s hospital on the campus.

NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde has accepted that the hospital’s water system probably caused some infections in child patients, but it has not made the same admission in relation to adults.

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.

Lord Brodie, who is chairing the inquiry, has also been asked to consider reopening proceedings to take further evidence from the former first minister, as well as former health and finance secretaries.

Maureen said she wants accountability but does not want any reopening of the inquiry to delay the process indefinitely.

“It has to have an end. But I think that they can add some supplementary evidence. So maybe they could be questioned, but I don’t want this to mean that the inquiry takes years and years.

“In the closing statement, GGC said the hospital is safe, but I don’t believe it is.”

She said families affected by the issues at the hospital feel the impact is far from over.

“It feels as though we are still carrying about a huge, heavy weight on our shoulders. It is as if I’m constantly walking about with a backpack full of bricks.

“A lot of people keep saying ‘oh that’s the end’ and I’m like ‘no’, it’s just really starting now.“

Tony recorded a lockdown video during the coronavirus pandemic to help cheer others up while he was shielding.

And Maureen, who worked alongside her husband, said the children she looks after still talk about Tony – a man she describes as the love of her life and her best friend.

Scottish Labour leader Anas Sarwar has been calling for the inquiry chairman, 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.