Worby, Vecchio, Edelman LLP

Officials seek links to Sound Shore Legionnaires cases NEW ROCHELLE Legionnella bacteria have been identified in the water supply inside Sound Shore Medical Center, and health officials are investigating whether that source sickened any of the 21 people who came down with Legionnaires disease beginning in June. The investigation into the outbreak has moved inside the hospital, although laboratory tests have confirmed that bacteria spewing from an air conditioning cooling tower outside the hospital s Washington Avenue entrance were responsible for two for the 21 cases, Robert Kenny, a spokesman for the state Health Department, said yesterday. We have now results that show the presence of Legionella in some water sources inside the hospital, but there are no laboratory findings that link these other sources to any specific patient illness, Kenny said. He said testing done several weeks ago showed Legionella was in the potable water supply water used for drinking and ba

Hospital awaits more actions after outbreak of Legionnaires WHITE PLAINS In thrice-weekly trips to the dialysis center at Sound Shore Medical Center in New Rochelle, Stephen Burke does not recall ever feeling the spray of water vapor from a cooling tower near the hospital entrance. His wife, Bridget Burke, did wonder, though, why the unit, part of the hospital air-conditioning system, was on the ground and not the roof. Those systems are always high up, she said yesterday. Health officials believe just walking by the cooling tower, which emitted a fine mist of water, may have been enough to sicken at least 20 people with Legionnaires disease since late June, among them Stephen Burke. Bacteria that cause the illness were found in the tower, which has since been replaced. Lawyers for Burke yesterday filed a lawsuit alleging negligence on the part of the hospital. It was the first legal action to emerge from the outbreak and likely not the last. Sal Schilliro, a Sou