Dylan Whiteside (6) and ten month old Kayleigh spent more than a week under strict medical supervision after microbiologists confirmed that they had the potentially lethal strain of the virus, E-coli 0157.

Their distraught mother Yvette Connor was told that both her children faced the risk of kidney failure – but thankfully the two children appeared to have turned a corner and were deemed fit to be discharged from the hospital on Sunday.

Both are required to attend regular check-ups as outpatients this week.
Yvette who lives in Hornbeam Road is attending Monklands Hospital as an outpatient where she is being closely monitored for fear that she too has been infected.

This has made it difficult for her to spend as much time with her sick children as she would have wished – in a move which only served to pile on the agony for the family.

Before the children started displaying the upsetting symptoms of food poisoning, Yvette's only expectation for the week ahead involved preparing little Dylan for his return to Abronhill Primary School.

Instead she spent the week in the unimaginably distressing position of facing the fact that Dylan and his sister were suddenly battling a life-threatening condition.

Yvette said: "When I had the news confirmed, I nearly collapsed. I could not speak. It has been absolutely horrendous. I could not see them, I was miles away. So when I got the call that they could come home it was just a huge relief."

"They will still need to be checked but at least they are home," she added.

However, Yvette is not happy with the way the matter has been handled amidst claims that the public was put at risk while NHS Lanarkshire decided how to deal with the matter.

Ironically, NHS Lanarkshire has no lack of experience in dealing with the condition - for it found itself in the throes of the world's worst recorded E:coli outbreak when 21 people died after coming into contact with contaminated meat from a Wishaw butchers' shop.

Despite this it is claimed that NHS Lanarkshire took TWO DAYS for to alert environmental health bosses at North Lanarkshire that E-coli had been detected in Cumbernauld.

In addition, the News understands that the children's grandmother who had rushed to the scene of the crisis was advised that she could continue working in the kitchen of the Ochilview home for the elderly in Seafar.

Despite her contact with her desperately sick grandchildren, health bosses gave her the green light only to reverse that decision after she had spent THREE DAYS at her work.

"Because she had not changed any nappies, she was told that she was safe. She was working there all that time - then they changed their minds and told her to stay away," said Yvette.

The News raised both points with NHS Lanarkshire whose spokesperson insisted that the public was not at risk at any point – as it is not its custom to alert the environmental health office until tests prove to be conclusive.

He said: "The North Lanarkshire Council Environmental Health service was contacted after NHS Lanarkshire was informed of microbiology results. Investigations are continuing and the results of further microbiology tests are awaited.

"There are no other cases of E-coli 0157 infection thought to be linked to these cases and no public food outlets are thought to be the source of these infection," he added.

Nor, he insisted, were there any grounds for concern as regards Ochilview – but he would not be drawn on the fact that the staff member was initially told that she could continue to work there.

"At the beginning of the investigation an assessment was made of the risk of infection being passed on to other people by close contacts of a case of E-coli 0157 infection. A second case of infection was reported and further information about close contacts was obtained. As a precautionary measure a contact of the cases of infection, who has not had any symptoms of illness, has been excluded from work," he said.

When the News asked North Lanarkshire Council how its environmental health officers had tackled the case, its business regulation manager Gordon Cunningham insisted everything had been done by the book.

"NHS Lanarkshire informed the Environmental Health Service of two cases of E-coli 0157 in the afternoon of Tuesday 19 August," said Mr Cunningham.

"Two premises had been identified by the patients' mother as possible sources of the infection, and officers were immediately dispatched to inspect both.

"A thorough inspection of food hygiene and handling practices at both premises found no areas of concern and nothing to indicate any link between either premises and the E-coli 0157 bacteria," he added.

"We are working with our partners at NHS Lanarkshire as part of the ongoing investigation," said Mr Cunningham.