Health chiefs have stopped looking for the source of a deadly fungus which infected two people at Glasgow's super hospital.
NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde bosses say they couldn't find the origin of the Mucor which infected grandmother Mito Kaur before she died this week.
Mito Kaur, 63, became infected with the rare fungus which comes from pin mould. The grandmother was admitted to the Queen Elizabeth University Hospital with pneumonia on January 7, but days later her condition began to deteriorate.
Mrs Kaur died at 2am on Thursday, the day before her 64th birthday. The mother-of-four had been due to retire this month.
A spokeswoman at NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde told The Herald on Sunday they had now finished their investigations into the fungus without finding the source. They said: "We have investigated a number of potential sources for Mucor without discovering the source and our investigations have concluded."
Aamer Anwar, the lawyer representing the Kaur family said: "The family were told by the hospital that they had tried to trace the Mucor, but because of the nature of the fungus, it had been impossible to find.
"Mito’s family remain highly dissatisfied with the explanation given and concerned in case another patient becomes seriously ill as a result of contracting the Mucor infection.
"The family are waiting on the post-mortem and inquiries being carried out by Crown Office before they will be able to comment fully on the nature and cause of their mother’s death."
Mrs Kaur's daughter Raj previously said the family had not been told of their mother's fungal infection until they read about it on the NHSGGC website.
She said she questioned doctors who confirmed their mother was one of those who had the deadly infection. NHSGGC denied this, insisting the family were told three days before any information about Mucor was made public.
Mrs Kaur was moved to the intensive care unit at the QEUH, but then moved again to an open part of the ward, according to her family.
Her ICU room had been sealed up, and it was reported that panelling from the walls had been stripped off to try and find out if a leak had caused the fungus.
It was previously reported that the Mucor fungus which infected Mrs Kaur was thought to have been linked to a water leak.
Prosecutors are now investigating the grandmother's death, as well as the death of two patients who were infected with Cryptococcus, following bird dropping contamination at the £842m super hospital.
Meanwhile an anonymous report to the Scottish Parliament's Health and Sport committee this week stated that a faulty dialysis point had caused "extensive mould" in one hospital's critical care unit, and said there had been "removal and repair of a wall in the critical care unit as a result of a leaking dialysis point ... This was in relation to [plumbing] connections not being adequately tightened".
The report does not state which hospital the Mucor had been found in.
As we previously reported, the infection is very rare with no other such cases thought to have been detected in Scottish hospitals before.
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