Families of New Yorkers who died in this summer’s Legionnaires’ outbreak in Harlem are taking legal action against the city.
Attorney Ben Crump said his firm is filing four notices of wrongful death claims with the city, a required step before naming it in a lawsuit. He added that even more claims related to the outbreak are forthcoming.
One claim is connected to the death of 53-year-old Bruce Scott, who left behind a 6-year-old daughter, Brooke.
“It’s devastating because he walked out the door in the ambulance and never came back, and that’s traumatizing for my child,” Lakisha Plowden, Brooke’s mother, told reporters Tuesday. “She needs justice. My daughter needs to understand why her dad is not here anymore.”
The suit is among many expected to follow from the summer’s outbreak, which sickened more than 100 people, hospitalized 90 and killed seven. The city has tied the outbreak — the worst since 16 died in a 2015 outbreak in the Bronx — to two cooling towers in Central Harlem. One was located at the city-run Harlem Hospital, and the other at a city-owned construction site overseen by the construction firm Skanska.
The city health department said the towers tested positive for Legionella, a bacteria that can cause Legionnaires’ disease — a form of pneumonia — when inhaled.
Scott died on July 26, but Plowden wasn’t notified by the health department that Scott had died from Legionnaires’ until Sept. 10, according to the wrongful death notice filed with the city. The notice says Plowden is seeking $20 million in damages.
Plowden spoke at a press conference alongside Crump, the Rev. Al Sharpton and others affected by the Legionnaires’ outbreak.
Crump’s firm and Weitz & Luxenberg have already filed two lawsuits against Skanska on behalf of people who said they caught Legionnaires’ in Harlem and a third against another contractor, which was allegedly involved in work at the Harlem Hospital site. Crump said he represents 35 clients affected by the outbreak and more lawsuits are coming.
”First and foremost, our hearts go out to all the families who have been impacted in this recent Legionnaires outbreak,” Christopher McKniff, a spokesperson for Skanska, said in a statement. He said the company cannot comment on pending litigation, but it worked with the health department to disinfect the cooling tower that tested positive for Legionella.
Crump suggested the official death toll could be an undercount because some people may have died who were diagnosed with pneumonia without being tested for Legionnaires’.
June Cooley, who appeared alongside Crump at the press conference, said that when her mother, Gloria, was hospitalized for Legionnaires’ this summer she was at first simply told she had pneumonia. Cooley said she had to press doctors to test her mother for Legionnaires’.
She said her mother, who ultimately survived, couldn’t talk or move when she was first hospitalized.
“I was persistent because I said something ain’t right here,” Cooley said.
Asked about claims of an undercount, a spokesperson for the city health department said it doesn’t comment on pending litigation.
“We mourn those who lost their lives, and our thoughts are with their loved ones,” William Fowler, a spokesperson for City Hall, said in a statement on the wrongful death claims. “Thanks to our swift efforts, we were able to save countless more lives in the face of this outbreak.”
Fowler added the city will review any lawsuits once they are received.
City Health Commissioner Michelle Morse said at a City Council oversight hearing Friday that officials are working to strengthen regulations to prevent future outbreaks. She said she supported proposed legislation to increase testing requirements for cooling towers and that the city is working to hire more inspectors.
