Gwen Hanlon on husband Kevin's 2017 Legionnaires death and sporadic cases
Gwen Hanlon describes her husband Kevin's death from Legionnaires in 2017 during the Lenox Hill outbreak, noting 96% of cases are sporadic and not part of outbreaks. She calls for comprehensive investigation of every case and a source-to-tap approach like New Jersey's.
Okay, we're going to resume public testimony.
The next panel is Robert Bocock, Kim Smith,
Gwen Hanlon.
Patricia Loftman and Jennifer Ratner.
Okay, thank you.
Sergeant.
Oh, okay.
That's fine.
That's fine.
That's fine.
So is everybody, so who's, so we have Robert Bocock here, right?
Kim Smith is not here?
Okay.
Gwen Hanlon is you, okay.
Patricia Loffman is you, and Jennifer Ratner.
Got it, okay.
So everybody has two minutes, because we have a lot of people that want to testify, both online and in person.
So if you have...
Extended testimony, you can submit it to us at testimony at council.nyc.gov.
We'll take a look at it.
So just be mindful and we'll be clocking.
So we'll go from this way.
Yeah, you, oh, give her the mic and just put it on, put it, press the button.
Okay, go ahead.
Hi, Chairman Shulman and members of the Health Committee.
Thank you for the opportunity to share my story, my husband's story.
My name is Gwen Hanlon, and my husband, Kevin, died from Legionnaires in 2017.
I've been begging for the prevention of Legionnaires for nine years, so please keep going, and thank you for doing this.
I've been doing it for nine years.
Kevin died from Legionnaires, and New York City still cannot tell me where the bacteria that killed him came from.
He was diagnosed with lung cancer at 46 years old from 9-11 exposure, but lung cancer didn't kill Kevin.
We believe he was exposed to it during the Lenox Hill outbreak where he was receiving cancer treatment.
Before Legionnaires, Kevin was active in responding well to treatment.
And like the previous victims, families explained, this is a horrible way to die.
He was intubated, had extreme fever, agonizing pain, withdrawals from the meds, and was in a medically induced coma with a feeding tube and a tracheotomy.
And he fought like this for five weeks.
After five weeks, I had to tell my six- and nine-year-old children their dad was never coming back.
The Department of Health and the CDC did not report on my husband's death because he was considered a one-of case, and I have sought answers and records for years.
I appreciate the focus on outbreaks, but you are missing thousands of victims.
96% of all cases are considered sporadic.
The proposed New York legislation must call for comprehensive investigation of every reported Legionnaire's case.
New York officials didn't address Kevin's case then, and here we are in the exact same area nine years later with a worse tragedy.
Thousands of more New Yorkers have become sick since Kevin's passing, and I'm still asking the same questions.
Where did it come from?
I'm not a scientist, but there's some bright ones here today, and they are begging New York to focus on the source of the water.
New York responds to outbreaks the same way.
Identify a cluster, test cooling towers, and remediate.
And then we wait.
We wait for more cases.
Why isn't New York looking at the entire water system the way New Jersey did?
In 2024, New Jersey passed what is described as the most comprehensive Legionnaires disease prevention law in the country.
States like Pennsylvania and Maryland are following.
So I have a new question.
Why does New York continue to handle the outbreaks the same way for the past 10 plus years and expect a different outcome?
It's not working.
Nothing changes if nothing changes.
I'm here today to ask for you to keep this going and make a change.
Handle it differently.
Thank you for hearing our story, my husband's story, and thank you for doing more to make a change.
Maybe the story will be different next year.
Thank you.