Over the past weekend, Mount Carmel Health System announced that it is investigating two cases of Legionnaire’s disease in patients recently been treated at Mount Carmel East Hospital. Legionnaire’s disease is a severe form of pneumonia that can infect the water systems of facilities that do not take appropriate precautions. This is the third outbreak of Legionnaire’s disease at Mount Carmel facilities this year.
In June, 16 patients contracted Legionnaire’s disease while seeking treatment at Mount Carmel Grove City. One of these patients died as a result of the disease.
Rourke & Blumenthal is representing another victim of the Legionnaire’s outbreak who was at Mount Carmel Grove City for treatment of a relatively minor problem. As a result of her stay at the hospital, she contracted Legionnaire’s disease and wound up near death in the ICU. After a lengthy hospitalization, our client spent weeks in a rehabilitation facility. To date, she has not fully recovered from an illness that should have never occurred in the first place.
In August, the Legionnaire’s disease bacteria was found in the water system of the Mount Carmel College of Nursing. Fortunately, there were no reported cases of anyone contracting the disease as a result of this outbreak.
It is too early to tell how many victims there will be as a result of this most recent outbreak at Mount Carmel East. Outbreaks of this nature sometimes last for weeks or months and, at times, patients do not realize they contracted this severe case of pneumonia as the result of inadequate precautions by the hospital where they were staying.
Residents of central Ohio, as well as the Columbus Public Health Department, the Ohio Department of Health and the CDC, need to pressure Mount Carmel to clean up its act and get back to its job of healing people rather than harming them.
For more information, see:
- https://www.10tv.com/article/least-2-cases-legionnaires-disease-confirmed-recent-mount-carmel-east-patients-2019-oct
- https://www.nbc4i.com/news/local-news/officials-investigating-possible-legionnaires-disease-outbreak-at-mt-carmel-east/
If you or someone you know has suffered from medical negligence, don’t wait to contact Rourke & Blumenthal. Our team can review your case and help you file a lawsuit for damages. Call us at (614) 321-3212 or submit a contact form here.