New Lawsuits Filed Over Harlem Legionnaires’ Outbreak

Dozens of Harlem residents are now suing New York City over its response to a deadly outbreak of Legionnaires’ in the neighborhood last summer, which sickened 114 people and killed seven. NYC Health + Hospitals Corporation and multiple contractors are also listed as defendants.

The outbreak lasted between late July and late August, and was later traced to 12 cooling towers connected to ten buildings, spread across five ZIP codes

Legionnaires’, a severe form of pneumonia caused by inhaling water vapor containing live Legionella bacteria, can be particularly dangerous for people living with chronic lung disease or other similar co-morbidities.

The legal blitz comes just a week after a severe Legionnaires’ outbreak was declared contained on the Upper East Side. Much like the Harlem outbreak, seven people were killed, with more than 80 sickened; the widow of one victim who passed away is planning a lawsuit of her own.

An August 6 presser on the new lawsuits connected to Harlem was helmed by the National Action Network, the civil rights nonprofit run by the Rev. Al Sharpton. Benjamin Crump, a prominent civil rights attorney, is lending his firm’s support to the plaintiffs.

Speakers at the presser asked that last year’s outbreak receive ongoing coverage akin to that provided for Upper East Siders, especially as families and patients say that they continue to deal with emotional and medical aftereffects.

“We are not going to allow them to be forgotten, as just ‘oh, this is just something that happened,’” Sharpton said. “It happened. It needs to be dealt with. Those that were negligent or in any way guilty need to be called into accountability.”

Crump’s firm notes that four separate lawsuits encompass the complaints of 41 people either directly infected during the outbreak, or otherwise related to those killed. They also build on former legal efforts.

Last year, Sharpton and Crump lent support to lawsuits filed by two construction workers, who had contracted the disease at worksites located at or around NYC Health + Hospitals Harlem; health inspectors had singled out two separate contractors, Skanska USA and Rising Sun Construction, that had failed to provide adequate safeguards against the disease at these sites.

Nunzio Quino, one of these two workers, joined Crump at the August 6 press conference. “I find it disheartening that after I was diagnosed with Legionnaires’, my co-workers were not notified,” he said. “I found this out a few weeks afterwards.”

“Evidently neither were the people in the neighborhood,” Quino, who was visibly outraged, added. “They were also in danger. That’s something to think about, isn’t it? How people try to hide when they’re doing something wrong.”

June Cooley, another plaintiff, spoke after Quino. She described how her mother is still dealing with the aftereffects of catching Legionnaires’ last summer: “We’re still dealing with PTSD...my mom is still receiving medical treatment as follow-up to the damage that was done to her body.”

Cooley noted that she discovered her mother on the floor, and was not able to see her for two hours after taking her to Harlem Hospital. In fact, Cooley said that doctors—at both Harlem Hospital and Bellevue, where her mother was eventually transferred—initially refused to administer a Legionnaires’ test, and were on the verge of sending her home.

“She had to go to rehab because she couldn’t walk,” Cooley said. “All of this time that she’s in the hospital, she’s still bed-bound. This is the person they wanted to send home.”

“Thank God you were there for your mother, June,” Crump chimed in.