{"id":167522,"date":"2025-08-22T21:57:10","date_gmt":"2025-08-22T21:57:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/167522\/"},"modified":"2025-08-22T21:57:10","modified_gmt":"2025-08-22T21:57:10","slug":"legionnaires-patient-plans-to-sue-nyc-says-disease-has-trapped-her-in-her-apartment","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/167522\/","title":{"rendered":"Legionnaires’ patient plans to sue NYC, says disease has trapped her in her apartment"},"content":{"rendered":"

A woman battling Legionnaires’ disease<\/a> is now taking aim at New York City for what she claims is inaction as Harlem grapples with an increasingly deadly outbreak<\/a>.<\/p>\n

It’s the latest of several lawsuits related to the outbreak<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“I’m scared if I go to sleep, I might not wake up.” <\/p>\n

Joyce Mack, 60, says ever since contracting Legionnaires’ disease, she feels trapped in her apartment by a heavy machine that helps her breathe<\/a> and in her mind by the fear of losing her life.<\/p>\n

“I watch TV all night. I will not go to sleep,” she said. “I’m scared if I go to sleep, I might not wake up.”<\/p>\n

Mack is one of 111 people, so far, diagnosed with Legionnaires’ disease\u00a0this summer<\/a>\u00a0in Central Harlem. The cases have been centralized to five ZIP codes: 10027, 10030, 10035, 10037 and 10039.<\/p>\n

Thursday, officials announced the death toll<\/a>\u00a0rose to six.<\/p>\n

“I want to live. I just made 60. I want to live for a long time. I don’t want to just go,” Mack said.<\/p>\n

She’s preparing to file a lawsuit against the city for not doing more to stop the Legionnaires’ outbreak<\/a>. It’s believed she potentially contracted the disease from a city-owned building<\/a>. Harlem Hospital is named in the notice of claim.<\/p>\n

“The city itself is not maintaining its own cooling towers<\/a> as required by city law,” attorney Ronald Katter said.<\/p>\n

NYC Health and Hospitals responded to the claim with a statement reading, in part: “NYC Health + Hospitals has a one of the most rigorous cooling tower safety and inspection programs, exceeding city testing and cleaning requirements. We inspect towers every day; further, we look for legionella weekly instead of the required every 90 days.”<\/p>\n

At least two lawsuits have been filed<\/a> over the outbreak, and a third is planned<\/a>, in addition to Mack’s lawsuit.<\/p>\n

Harlem community leaders demand more information from NYC<\/p>\n

Harlem community leaders came together Friday to address the outbreak and join calls against the city for transparency and accountability.<\/p>\n

“This is heartbreaking and unacceptable, and most importantly, it is preventable,” said Marquis Harrison, chairperson of Manhattan Community Board 10.<\/p>\n

Community Board 10 made demands Friday, including a full update from the city on the current investigation and remediation efforts of Legionnaires’ disease, as well as the tower locations.<\/p>\n

In the meantime, those battling the disease, like Mack, are forced to take it day by day.<\/p>\n

“I’m saying to myself, ‘I hope I’m not next,'” she said. “God got me here for a reason, not a season.”<\/p>\n

Allen Devlin<\/a><\/p>\n

Allen Devlin joined the CBS News New York team in September 2024 and is excited to once again call New York City home.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A woman battling Legionnaires’ disease is now taking aim at New York City for what she claims is…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":167523,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5122],"tags":[5229,91232,405,403,5226,5225,5228,5227,67,586,132,5230,68,2969],"class_list":{"0":"post-167522","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-york","8":"tag-america","9":"tag-legionnaires-disease-2","10":"tag-new-york","11":"tag-new-york-city","12":"tag-newyork","13":"tag-newyorkcity","14":"tag-ny","15":"tag-nyc","16":"tag-united-states","17":"tag-united-states-of-america","18":"tag-unitedstates","19":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","20":"tag-us","21":"tag-usa"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115074659060197469","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/167522","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=167522"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/167522\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/167523"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=167522"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=167522"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=167522"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}