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A mother has told how she “wanted to die” after being wrongly accused by staff at a scandal-hit hospital of trying to murder her disabled daughter.

Kirsteen Cooper was arrested and placed in a cell overnight after staff at the Royal Hospital for Children (RCH) in Glasgow wrongly accused her of stealing blood from her daughter Baillie to make her anaemic.

She was wrongly suspected of fabricated or induced illness, a controversial condition, formerly known as Munchausen’s syndrome by proxy, which theorised that some mothers harm their children to draw attention to themselves.

Kirsteen said: “I was in disbelief as to how this could this be happening to an innocent person. I can never explain the pain I felt. I wanted to die. I was terrified. I couldn’t stand it, locked up, lying on a cell floor with nothing but a brick wall and a toilet.

“How could anyone possibly think I could have hurt my child? My children are my life and there could be nothing worse than to be accused of that.”

(Image: Daily Record)

Baillie, who turns seven today, uses a wheelchair, has cerebral palsy and has to be fed by tubes into her gut and artery.

She was a patient at the RCH, part of the £842million Queen Elizabeth University Hospital (QEUH) in Glasgow, which is the focus of a public inquiry over safety fears and patient deaths from infections.

Yesterday, the hospital’s controlling health board, NHS Great Glasgow and Clyde (NHSGGC), was placed under “special measures” which will allow for greater supervision of its operation and performance.

As a result of the allegations levelled against mum-of-three Kirsteen, she endured a harrowing two years of limited access to Baillie amid threats she would be placed in foster care.

Yet, throughout all investigations, Kirsteen continued to care for her other two young daughters at home, with no restrictions.

(Image: Daily Record)

Medical watchdog, the Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) are now investigating a formal complaint from the Cooper family regarding a staff member from NHSGGC’s child protection services, who they claim was central to their ordeal.

The criminal case against Kirsteen was dropped after a world-renowned consultant haematologist from Alderhey Hospital in Liverpool said Baillie’s anaemia was caused by her complex illness, a diagnosis later backed by the child’s own consultant at the RCH.

Baillie, who had a complicated medical history since birth, was only four when she was admitted to RCH in December 2016, after a six-month period of regular infections and stays in hospital.

In the submissions to the NMC, Kirsteen said the Child Protection Service’s (CPS) investigation only came to light on January 26 2017, following a formal complaint from the family to the hospital about the medical care of Baillie and the hygiene of her ward room.

In a statement to the NMC, Kirsteen said the hospital could respond to her concerns as there was child protection involvement.

(Image: Daily Record)

On February 2, 2017, Baillie’s feeding tube leaked and was quickly fixed with no consequence.

But Kirsteen was accused by staff of tampering with it and then removed from hospital by police and social workers.

She said no concerns regarding her family’s handling of Baillie’s care had been raised with them before the dramatic intervention.

In a sworn affidavit accompanying the complaint to the NMC, she described being torn from her child as “horrendous”.

Kirsteen said: “She had to be prised off me by my mum while I fell to the floor. I could hear her screaming from outside the ward.”

Baillie had barely ever been apart from her mother but the following day, Kirsteen was allowed only two hours contact and wasn’t allowed to cuddle her daughter without supervision.

She said Baillie seemed like a “prisoner” during that period of restricted visits in hospital.

Kirsteen added: “Every day was distressing for her and she screamed and clung to me every time we had to leave.

She screamed, ‘I just want my mummy’. It was heartbreaking.”

Kirsteen’s mother stayed overnight with Baillie, who was then only three, and they have a video, which shows Baillie inconsolable and begging for her mother.

(Image: Daily Record)

Kirsteen claimed: “She would wake up numerous times every night, crying for me. She was scared. During her time in hospital she was isolated in a cubicle as she wasn’t allowed out due to child protection restrictions.

“As she can’t walk or stand unaided, she used to crawl to the room door and watch the other kids play.

She was like a prisoner. Her emotional well-being were never taken into account. She was traumatised.”

Contact was gradually increased to 11 hours leading up to her discharge in May 2017, when Baillie was released on condition she stay with Kirsteen’s mum and sister.

In July 2017, Kirsteen was arrested, taken to Motherwell Police Station and charged with the attempted murder of Baillie.

She was put in a cell overnight and placed on suicide watch because she was so distressed.

Kirsteen said:” I couldn’t believe what was happening. I was devastated. I felt empty, like my life had been taken from me.

“How could anyone possibly think I could have hurt Baillie? I can never explain the pain I felt.”

She said she felt utterly “degraded”, lying weeping on a concrete floor, being watched by a camera and having to ask for basic necessities like toilet paper.

She said: “I lay looking round the cell thinking of a way to end my life as it’s the only way to take the pain away. I was terrified.

All I wanted was Craig and my girls.”

At 6.30am the next day, she was handcuffed, locked in a van and taken to Glasgow Sheriff Court, where she was again was placed in a cell on her own for several hours.

But she didn’t have to appear in court and was returned to Motherwell Police Station and released on bail to appear the following month.

(Image: PA)

Kirsteen said: “When I was released, I fell into Craig’s arms in tears.

I will never shake off the feeling of fear. I heard the noise of slamming doors every time I shut my eyes.”

The criminal case against Kirsteen was dropped and, after more than two years of allegations hanging over them, Kirsteen was vindicated at a Child Referral Hearing at Glasgow Sheriff Court in December last year.

She said, although her family are now together again, they can never recover from the pain of the suspicion and separation they endured.

In the written complaint, Kirsteen said: “My life has been changed for something I didn’t do.

Our whole family have suffered and honestly do not think we will ever get over it and I worry about the long term effect on Baillie.”

Last night, an NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde spokesman said it had now been informed no criminal proceedings are being taken against Kirsteen.

The spokesman said: “This was a complex multi-agency child protection matter, which has been the subject of lengthy police investigation.

“Pending conclusion of those investigations, it would not have been appropriate to respond to the family’s complaint.

“The board acknowledges that intimation of a NMC referral has been received by them, relating to one of their employees.”