A New York Congressman is calling for an investigation into how a patient died from Legionnaires’ disease, a disease contracted at a veteran’s health care facility in the Hudson Valley.
Democrat Sean Patrick Maloney says there needs to be an investigation into how the tragedy occurred, and then immediate steps taken to ensure veterans and their families have safe facilities and quality health care. Health officials told “The Poughkeepsie Journal” that the elderly Dutchess County resident contracted the disease at the Veterans’ Affairs Hudson Valley Health Care System Campus at Castle Point, in Wappingers Falls, in Dutchess County, and later died at Vassar Brothers Medical Center in Poughkeepsie. Legionnaires' disease is a severe form of pneumonia, a bacterial disease that is treatable, though older adults, smokers and people with weakened immune systems are especially susceptible.
