FLINT, MI – Attorney Geoffrey Fieger says he has filed a lawsuit seeking $100 million after a Legionnaires’ disease outbreak in the Flint area.
Fieger filed the lawsuit Monday, Feb. 1, in Genesee Circuit Court against McLaren-Flint on behalf of 58-year-old Debra Kidd. Kidd died from Legionella pneumonia on Aug. 2, 2015, seven days after she arrived at the hospital’s emergency room with a headache.
The lawsuit claims McLaren, which used Flint city water, knew its water supply was contaminated with the Legionella bacteria in April 2014. Over the next 17 months, multiple McLaren patients developed Legionnaires’ disease.
McLaren officials confirmed to The Flint Journal in January that Legionella bacteria was found in the hospital’s water supply at their Flint location after the city switched from Detroit to the Flint River as their water source in 2014.
Gov. Rick Snyder and state Health and Human Services Department officials said Wednesday, Jan. 13, that the Flint area experienced a spike in Legionnaires’ beginning in summer 2014.
Initially, state officials reported that 10 people had died from the outbreak, but that number was changed to nine in the newest study from the state. More than 70 were sickened in the outbreak.
The outbreak began shortly after Flint stopped using treated water from Detroit and began using the Flint River as the source of its drinking water, a change made by a Snyder-appointed emergency manager.
State health officials investigated a possible link between the city’s water supply and the outbreak, but the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services issued a report Jan. 21 saying the state investigators were unable to “determine a conclusive environmental source” of a Legionnaires Disease outbreak in the Flint area.
However, Fieger claims the water change played a role in the outbreak.
“The more I read and learn about this, the angrier I get,” Fieger said. “To save a few dollars, the Snyder Administration poisoned an entire city and thought they could get away with it because those poisoned were poor, and primarily black.”
McLaren spokeswoman Laurie Prochazka said the hospital has not yet seen the lawsuit and declined comment.
“It wouldn’t be appropriate to discuss the litigation,” Snyder’s Press Secretary Dave Murray said. “But with regard to Mr. Feiger’s comments, Gov. Snyder takes the well-being of all of Michigan residents very seriously, and Flint residents are not an exception to that.”
No response has been filed in the case.
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