A Lehigh County jury awarded $1.1 million to the estates of two men killed and three others sickened because of Legionnaires’ disease contracted from a tainted decorative fountain at a medical facility in suburban Allentown, PA, according to news reports.
The five victims – all men – took ill in 2013 after visits to the Integrated Health Campus, which houses numerous medical offices in South Whitehall Township. All five spent time near the fountain, which the Department of Health determined to be the source of the outbreak.
The jury awarded $750,000 to the estate of Otto A. Gruber and $125,000 to the estate of Russell Henry Peters, both of whom died from Legionnaires’ disease. The three other plaintiffs will receive $75,000 apiece, according to court records.