Jennifer McLoughlin, 43, is suing health chiefs over the problems she suffered while working at Glasgow’s Queen Elizabeth University Hospital.
Jennifer told how she feared she was dying after being struck down by an illness she blames on pigeons.
She claims birds nesting in the ceiling above her desk sparked weeks of severe breathing problems.
The mum of two was an admin worker in the neurological unit at the hospital in Glasgow when she started to feel ill.
Tests later blamed her issues on her “environment” — and the flagship health complex is now at the centre of an infection scandal linked to pigeon droppings.
Jennifer was horrified when a bug connected to the birds’ mess was this week confirmed as a factor in the death of a child patient — two years after she raised concerns about the £842million site.
She said: “I knew it was those birds making me ill. I could hear them over my head every day in our office.
“It started with a cough and then it just got worse and worse.
“After a few weeks I was in a horrendous state — I thought I was dying. I couldn’t breathe, I was in and out of hospital and calling ambulances to the house.
“I visited my GP at first then found myself having to go to the out of hours team.
“I would suffer violent coughing fits so bad that I fractured my rib during one of them.
“I was put on eight different types of steroids and inhalers. They ran loads of tests on me — I had X-rays, CT scans and a scope put down my throat.”
Jennifer, of Clydebank, added: “I told them about the pigeons at my workplace and they put it down to environmental issues.
“The birds managed to get in through the air vents and were above us.
“I’d complained loads of time but nothing was done.
“To think something could have been done to save that child — it’s just absolutely disgusting.”
Jennifer needed a month off work as she recovered and on her return demanded to be moved to another office.
Her bosses agreed, but she claims the superhospital didn’t do enough after she raised the alarm in April 2017.
5 QUESTIONS THAT NEED ANSWERED
1 Why didn’t health bosses or the Government alert the public earlier?
2 Would they have made the deaths and infection public had the media not pressed them?
3 Why does an £842m ‘superhospital’ not have adequate preventative measures against invading pigeons?
4 How did pigeon filth enter a closed ventilation system?
5 Are other hospitals being checked for pigeon problems?
She said: “I told them that I wasn’t working in that office again so they moved us. My health got better but I started looking for other jobs straight away, I couldn’t work there anymore.
“I think they knew deep down they were at fault because I was off ill for a month and those days weren’t even subtracted from my sick leave.”
Health Secretary Jeane Freeman announced a probe into the superhospital on Tuesday.
It came as she confirmed the cryptococcus infection — which can be breathed in from bird droppings — had been a factor in the death of the child in December.
Another elderly patient at the hospital who also had the infection died from an unrelated cause.
The likely source of the bug has been traced to a plant room. As details of two more infection cases emerged this week, Ms Freeman admitted the hospital “may not be fit for purpose”.
Jennifer, who lives with partner John Fenner, 46, and her children Georgia, nine, and seven-year-old Keenan, now works at the Golden Jubilee in Clydebank.
She went to her union for support after leaving the QEU then contacted Thompsons Solicitors.
They are helping take legal action against NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde, claiming her working environment was to blame for her health problems.
She said: “I’m suing them for how ill I was — my rib problem, all of the medication I had to take and how ill I was.
“Up until now they have been denying it — now they can’t hide any more. A child has died and who knows how many others have been affected.
“They should hang their heads in shame.”
NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde said it was “unable to comment on this ongoing legal case”.
A spokesman for Thompsons Solicitors added: “We are very keen that the health board engage with us to resolve the matter as quickly as possible.”
About Pigeon Patrol:
Pigeon Patrol Products & Services is the leading manufacturer and distributor of bird deterrent (control) products in Canada. Pigeon Patrol products have solved pest bird problems in industrial, commercial, and residential settings since 2000, by using safe and humane bird deterrents with only bird and animal friendly solutions. At Pigeon Patrol, we manufacture and offer a variety of bird deterrents, ranging from Ultra-flex Bird Spikes with UV protection, Bird Netting, 4-S Gel and the best Ultrasonic and audible sound devices on the market today.
Voted Best Canadian wholesaler for Bird Deterrent products four years in a row.
TransLink is trying to deal with a bird poop problem around the Commercial-Broadway SkyTrain station.
Pigeons have been nesting at a new platform that’s set to open early next month.
The noise of the SkyTrain — and the hustle and bustle of the commuters — isn’t enough to scare off the birds. So, Jill Drews with TransLink tells us a falcon has been brought in.
“The falcon kind of goes in from time to time and scares them away. Hopefully, they remember this is not a safe place to be.”
Drews says they’ll also be setting up electric strips, “The shock is very, very minor, it won’t harm the birds. But it’s just irritating so it will hopefully deter them from nesting.”
TransLink will also be installing spikes and netting to stop the birds from landing.
The new platform at the Commercial-Broadway station is set to open on Feb. 2. It will allow commuters to enter the westbound SkyTrains from both sides.
About Pigeon Patrol:
Pigeon Patrol Products & Services is the leading manufacturer and distributor of bird deterrent (control) products in Canada. Pigeon Patrol products have solved pest bird problems in industrial, commercial, and residential settings since 2000, by using safe and humane bird deterrents with only bird and animal friendly solutions. At Pigeon Patrol, we manufacture and offer a variety of bird deterrents, ranging from Ultra-flex Bird Spikes with UV protection, Bird Netting, 4-S Gel and the best Ultrasonic and audible sound devices on the market today.
Voted Best Canadian wholesaler for Bird Deterrent products four years in a row.
There are some weird things that happen in Florida – after all, that is the foundation of the entire Florida Man subReddit, so is it really that shocking that a video has surfaced of a man catching pigeons in a net? Probably not for most.
The majority of questions surrounding the video is about what the man plans on doing with the birds. Although the video posted on World Star HipHop is pretty low quality and only just over 30 seconds in length, you can clearly see a man standing near a group of pigeons with something in his hand. It is soon revealed that “something” is a net that he throws over the birds – successfully catching several.
The video cuts off with the man putting the birds in the back of a vehicle. It is not clear if it is his vehicle or someone else’s – but we would put money on it being his. There is no further information on who the mystery bird man is, so that is also up to speculation. Knowing the internet his identity will not remain a secret for very long.
As for the legality of this man’s actions – well, according to the Chicago Tribune, it is not illegal to catch and eat a city pigeon unless it happens to be someone’s trained homing pigeon.
With that being said, a lot of people are assuming he was catching his dinner.
About Pigeon Patrol:
Pigeon Patrol Products & Services is the leading manufacturer and distributor of bird deterrent (control) products in Canada. Pigeon Patrol products have solved pest bird problems in industrial, commercial, and residential settings since 2000, by using safe and humane bird deterrents with only bird and animal friendly solutions. At Pigeon Patrol, we manufacture and offer a variety of bird deterrents, ranging from Ultra-flex Bird Spikes with UV protection, Bird Netting, 4-S Gel and the best Ultrasonic and audible sound devices on the market today.
Voted Best Canadian wholesaler for Bird Deterrent products four years in a row.
Strategic retreat is sometimes the best offense. Citizens of Hyderabad are doing just that as ballooning pigeon population has taken over the city. “We are shelling out ₹2,000 per apartment to get the netting done. As we have 90 apartments, we have bargained the price down to ₹ 9 per sq ft,” says G. Ravi Kiran, a resident of an apartment complex in Hyderguda. “We have been forced to go for the netting as almost all the surrounding apartments have fixed the mesh which has lead to a rise in the number of pigeons frequenting our apartment,” he says. While feeding places have multiplied throughout the city over the past few years, more and more pigeons are taking over unlikely roosting places. “We found a pair and a small chick on the V-junction of a drainage pipe. There was almost no nest except a few sticks,” says Nirmala K., who lives in an apartment complex in Rama Krishna Nagar.
This panic is turning out to be a money-spinner for a clutch of entrepreneurs who have created a business opportunity by covering balconies, ventilator shafts and common areas with pigeon netting. “We are using nets with 40 mm holes to keep out pigeons. The demand is high. We have already covered about 1,000 apartment blocks over the past two years,” says Maitresety Madhav, who took up netting business three years ago.
“If netting is with 1.5 mm thread, the guarantee is for three years and if it is 2.5 mm thread, we guarantee it for seven years,” informs Mr. Madhav.
“I worked in Bengaluru for two years and have set up my own operations in Hyderabad now. We have even covered a temple with pigeon netting,” says Salman Raju, who says the cost varies according to the thickness of the thread.
The Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) is caught out of the game, as the feeding spots have sprouted all over the city. From a traffic island at Ameerpet to a parking spot at Masab Tank to the disused Mussalam Jung Bridge in the old city, pigeon feeding spots have multiplied.
“We have put signages in bigger parks, but people still feed pigeons in smaller parks. We are trying to tell people not to stop feeding pigeons,” said an official from Urban Biodiversity wing of the GHMC.
About Pigeon Patrol:
Pigeon Patrol Products & Services is the leading manufacturer and distributor of bird deterrent (control) products in Canada. Pigeon Patrol products have solved pest bird problems in industrial, commercial, and residential settings since 2000, by using safe and humane bird deterrents with only bird and animal friendly solutions. At Pigeon Patrol, we manufacture and offer a variety of bird deterrents, ranging from Ultra-flex Bird Spikes with UV protection, Bird Netting, 4-S Gel and the best Ultrasonic and audible sound devices on the market today.
Voted Best Canadian wholesaler for Bird Deterrent products four years in a row.
A driver has been hit with a £158 ($200) parking fine after his valid permit was covered by pigeon poo.
Southend, U.K., man, Scott Coltart, was slapped with the fine outside his house as parking officers allegedly couldn’t see the permit.
Despite immediately showing the parking inspector the mistake, he was told it was too late and would be forced to appeal the ticket with Southend Council.
Mr Coltart told Southend Standard: “If you just moved your head slightly, you could clearly see the permit was in date.
“Regardless, I immediately wiped the poo away but the man said it was too late and gave us the ticket.
“He was very rude as he slapped it on the windscreen and just said to take it up on appeal.”
But even after lodging their appeal, the 30-year-old and his wife Lisa were told by the council that, although the incident was “unfortunate”, they would still have to pay the fine.
The couple then challenged the ticket a second time and assumed the charge had been dropped, but later received an enforcement letter saying bailiffs would visit their home if it wasn’t paid in full.
Lisa said: “The only thing I can see we can do is pay it but we shouldn’t have to. We have two young children and we’re both self-employed.
“We work so hard for our kids – we can’t have bailiffs coming to our home. Bird poo is not something we can control.
“The fine says we had an invalid permit but that just isn’t true and our street is checked several times a day.”
A Southend Council spokesman said: “We are currently discussing this claim with our contractor and will be in touch with the residents directly.”
About Pigeon Patrol:
Pigeon Patrol Products & Services is the leading manufacturer and distributor of bird deterrent (control) products in Canada. Pigeon Patrol products have solved pest bird problems in industrial, commercial, and residential settings since 2000, by using safe and humane bird deterrents with only bird and animal friendly solutions. At Pigeon Patrol, we manufacture and offer a variety of bird deterrents, ranging from Ultra-flex Bird Spikes with UV protection, Bird Netting, 4-S Gel and the best Ultrasonic and audible sound devices on the market today.
Voted Best Canadian wholesaler for Bird Deterrent products four years in a row.
