Dirty, deadly secret - Legionnaires' outbreak hidden by hosp for year

June 21, 2005

Columbia Presbyterian Medical Center struggled for more than a year to treat Legionnaires' disease bacteria in its water pipes without telling patients or most employees to take precautions, state records obtained by the Daily News show.

Only in April - after six patients developed the disease and one had died - did the hospital give staff a memo saying Legionnaires' was "recently" found in its water, according to the records.

But the memo didn't mention that anyone had gotten sick because Columbia Presbyterian didn't want to "induce panic," the records show.

The shocking disclosure is contained in more than 160 pages of state Health Department documents obtained by The News through a Freedom of Information request.

http://www.nydailynews.com/front/story/320944p-274448c.html

Come ... the "Ownership Society" awaits.

After all, Doctors are God and everyone is is greedy and frivolous.

in one of the early outbreaks - but was an anomoly. One of the early major outbreaks (after the initial one) was at Indiana University - but (to my knowledge) save myself - folks who caught it were visitors, and not natives (some immunity built up? not sure why this was the case). I was a "native" - but went to school elsewhere. Had what was thought to be recurring bronchitis (severe) - it wasn't thought to test for this until months later.

Apparently many people may catch this - and at first it is like a cold - and the body fights it off - and it is never detected. It is only if the "cold" progresses to pnemonia type levels that it is deadly - thus if those who are primarily exposed are pretty healthy - it is never detected (the bodies fight it off before it becomes fatal.)

For me, it stayed dormant from the time I went into finals in the spring (not at Indiana U - but after spending time there earlier in the semester)... with a severe enough case of "bronchitis" that I ended up at the emergency room one night when I couldn't breath (due to the coughing)... it "cleared up" - then the next fall when I was back to getting very little sleep (maybe it was the first round of exams) - I was back to being so ill. The college doc had the sense to run a series of blood tests (had to be done over a period of time - back then - I think six weeks) - and finally the diagnosis was made, I got medications, and with minor scar tissue in the lungs - the episode was over. Bro was in med school at the time - and realizing that I broke the records on several accounts - was rather "excited" at the time (as in - wow a unique case.. for the records... and in my own family...)

Long story short - that was more than 20 years ago - and I still breath, type and exist. It is not always fatal.