Ohio State pays $1.2M over Legionnaires' death

COLUMBUS (AP) — Ohio State University has agreed to pay $1.2 million to a woman whose husband drank from a medical center water faucet, contracted Legionnaires’ disease and died.

The settlement ends a lawsuit filed by the man’s wife, Sharron Morris, who said legal action was the only way she could call attention to the problem.

“It does not make up for his life,” Morris said Friday. “We miss him.”

Her husband, David Morris, 66, of Lima, died in April 2007, five months after drinking water out of a sink faucet at the Ohio State Medical Center. He was being treated for leukemia and drank water to wash down medication.

Nurses and other staff at the hospital knew water on the ninth floor could contain the bacteria that causes Legionnaires’ but did not warn patients, according to the lawsuit.

“Instead they just handed out bottled water, but didn’t specifically instruct patients not to drink the water nor did they have any signs saying not to drink the water,” said David Shroyer, an attorney for the Morris family.