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Legionnaire’s disease outbreak at MVH draws lawsuits

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By Ben Sutherly, Staff Writer 9:23 PM Monday, February 13, 2012

DAYTON — Four lawsuits have now been filed against Miami Valley Hospital and other defendants over a February 2011 outbreak of Legionnaires’ disease at the hospital.

A lawsuit filed Wednesday in Montgomery County Common Pleas Court claims O’Dell Norman of Huber Heights became seriously ill after he allegedly contracted Legionnaires’ disease while staying at the hospital.

In a lawsuit filed last week, the family of a 94-year-old Kettering man, Charles O. Preston, alleged the hospital was responsible for his death from Legionnaires’ disease.

Preston’s death certificate states he died March 23 from Legionella pneumonia.

The families of deceased patients Robert Austin of Springfield and Doris Day of Kettering also are represented in the Preston complaint. Though their death certificates don’t mention Legionella, medical records and an oral admission by a hospital attorney confirm they had the infection, too, according to the complaint.

The Dayton Daily News erroneously reported last week that the Preston lawsuit was the first to be filed in the outbreak’s wake. In fact, two other lawsuits had been filed previously against the hospital and other defendants in county Common Pleas Court. They include:

• A Jan. 9 complaint alleging that Shirley Stewart of Xenia and George B. Williams of Huber Heights contracted the disease during their hospital stays.

• A Jan. 23 complaint alleging that Virginia Shaw of Troy contracted the disease during her hospital stay.

“Out of respect for the confidentiality of the patients, we can’t discuss their care or case, and we don’t comment on pending litigation,” hospital spokeswoman Nancy Thickel said in a prepared release Monday.

Hospital officials in July told the Dayton Daily News that insufficient heating of the hot-water system in its new 12-story addition was the primary reason for the outbreak, the largest in Ohio since 2004.

They had hoped the lower temperatures would prevent scalding.

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