Widow of Legionnaires' victim plans lawsuit as outbreak death toll reaches 5
A 5th death in connection to the outbreak was announced on Tuesday
UPPER EAST SIDE, Manhattan (WABC) -- The widow of an 88-year-old Air Force veteran who died from Legionnaires' disease says she plans to file a wrongful death lawsuit as New York City health officials continue searching for the source of an outbreak that has sickened dozens of people on the Upper East Side.
Officials announced on Tuesday that a fifth person has now died.
Robert Goldstein lived on the Upper East Side where the outbreak has led to 82 cases and five deaths.
Council Speaker Julie Menin blasted the Mamdani Administration for what she calls a lack of communication.
Goldstein spent two weeks in the intensive care unit before dying Friday, and is among five people who have died during the outbreak. City health officials say there have now been 82 confirmed cases, with eight people currently hospitalized, 53 discharged and 12 others not requiring hospitalization.
Ida Goldstein can still hear her dying husband's last words haunting her as she watched him suffering on life support.
"To see him that way with all that machinery and lying there helpless, it just tears me apart," Goldstein said.
Goldstein says two weeks before he got sick, doctors told her husband he was in good health.
Goldstein says he was a decorated Air Force veteran who had been married for 50 years. According to the family's attorney, the man's wife found him feverish near an open window in their Yorkville apartment on July 2. His condition worsened and he was later hospitalized.
Then he died on Friday.
Goldstein's attorney says his client's building tested negative for Legionella.
He plans to sue the owner of the cooling tower that got him sick.
"They match the DNA of the patient's culture to the DNA of the Legionella in the building," Ron Katter said.
The city's health department has now identified the first Upper East Side buildings with cooling towers that could be the source of the Legionnaires' outbreak.
The city also provided the preliminary list of the 34 cooling towers that had live bacteria. They have all now been cleaned and disinfected. Nine towers tested negative with the results from the remaining 140 towers expected over the next week.
City Council Speaker Julie Menin, though, is blasting the Mamdani Administration for what she calls a lack of clear communication.
"We actually learned about a second death from a reading a news account. That's not acceptable. We also need an answer as to why more than a third of water ecologist positions in the Department of Health are vacant. One third. These are the very experts who respond to positive tests of Legionella," Menin said.
"In the budget the department of health is supposed to have twice the amount of inspectors as they did last year. But they haven't hired a lot of them," City Councilmember Lynn Schulman said.
A spokesperson for the mayor's office says it put out more information to the public than ever before.
Previous mayors had not disclosed addresses of buildings with cooling towers that came back with a positive PCR test.
A spokesperson for the Health Department adds that, "In the past, city protocol has been to begin an investigation after three cases have been confirmed in a tight area and time frame. The NYC Health Department did not wait for that. With only two confirmed cases, we launched our investigation. These actions have saved lives."
To pinpoint the source, the city has been using sensitive PCR testing to detect Legionella bacteria in cooling towers across the Upper East Side. The Health Department has ordered 76 buildings to clean and disinfect their cooling towers after testing positive.
Mayor Zohran Mamdani defended the city's response, saying investigators moved quickly after the first cases emerged.
"In the past, city protocol has been to begin an investigation after three cases have been confirmed in a tight area and time frame," the mayor said. "We did not wait for that. On Thursday, July 2nd, we launched our investigation with just two confirmed cases. Following the guidance of public health experts, we directed every building with an initial positive test result to immediately clean and disinfect its cooling tower."
City Council Speaker Julie Menin on Tuesday announced a bill requiring the city take proactive steps identifying cooling towers that building owners did not test, and establish a summer hotline with information during a Legionnaires' outbreak. She will also hold an oversight hearing in September.
Speaker Menin said that there area 23 open water oncology positions at the health department that the administration is not filling.
Health officials have not yet identified the outbreak's exact source, and the investigation remains ongoing.
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