Molly Cuddihy, 23, dies seven years after getting infection in hospital as a teen

A 23-year-old woman has died seven years after she became seriously ill with a hospital acquired infection as a teenager.

Prosecutors are probing the death of Molly Cuddihy, who passed away on Tuesday in the high dependency unit of Queen Elizabeth University Hospital in Glasgow, the BBC has reported. Molly was being treated for a rare cancer at the hospital between January 2018 and 2020 when she developed septic shock, an experience she described while giving evidence to the Scottish Hospitals Inquiry. It is understood that her death this week was reported to prosecutors by a doctor.

NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde has expressed its "deepest condolences" to Ms Cuddihy's family. The Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service (COPFS) said her death is being investigated. A COPFS spokesman said: "The Procurator Fiscal has received a report on the death of a 23-year-old woman in Glasgow on 26 August 2025. An investigation into the death is ongoing and significant developments will be shared with the family throughout the investigation."

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NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde said: "Our deepest condolences are with the family of Molly Cuddihy during this extremely difficult time. To respect patient confidentiality we are unable to provide further comment."

The Scottish Hospitals Inquiry is currently investigating the construction of the QEUH campus, which includes the Royal Hospital for Children. It was launched in the wake of deaths linked to infections, including that of 10-year-old Milly Main.

In 2021, when Molly was 19-years-old, she gave evidence to the inquiry. She was diagnosed with metastatic Ewing's sarcoma at just 15-years-old and told the inquiry that a hospital acquired infection left her experiencing "frightening" fits. Molly was cared for at the Royal Hospital for Children and QEUH in Glasgow between January 2018 and 2020, where she was fitted with a line for treatment.

Molly told the inquiry she fell ill not long after starting chemotherapy and went into septic shock - a life-threatening condition that occurs when an infection causes dangerously low blood pressure and organ dysfunction.

The teenager 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. Molly said she had to take a "very strong" course of antibiotics she likened to bleach to treat the infection.

She told the inquiry: "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."

She said the doctors and nurses were just as much in the dark as she was about where the infection came from. Molly told the inquiry: "I was made sicker by the environment."

Despite her illness Ms Cuddihy worked to help other young patients and raised more than £300,000 to improve the lives of fellow cancer patients at Royal Hospital for Children.

Paying tribute to Molly in a statement released to the BBC, her family said: "It is with broken hearts that we share the passing of our beloved daughter Molly. She was a special soul who brought light, love, and kindness into the lives of so many around her. What we will always treasure is the way she touched others; often without ever realising just how truly extraordinary she was."

They added: "We are devastated by her loss and struggling to comprehend a world without her gentle presence. To us, she will forever be our precious girl: deeply loved, irreplaceable, and always remembered."

The Scottish Hospitals Inquiry is also investigating the construction of the Royal Hospital for Children and Young People, and Department of Clinical Neurosciences, in Edinburgh.