Man hospitalized with Legionnaire’s disease in 2022 files lawsuit against Orillia and contractors
An Orillia man who was says he was hospitalized for weeks after contracting Legionnaire’s disease in the fall of 2022 has filed a $2.6-million lawsuit against the city.
Jo Brabant, now 55, first spoke to CTV News in November of that year and described his “nightmare” battle with the disease from which he says he hasn’t fully recovered.
“I still have hardness in breathing. It hasn’t gotten any better for me.”
Brabant says he struggles to breathe and get around; once-simple everyday tasks aren’t possible now.
Brabant, who is a father and husband says he is now experiencing a worsening memory loss.
“I have times where I’ll be driving and I forget where I’m going and I need to stop and like program it into my phone.”
Brabant claims he still suffers from chills and pains in his joints and muscles. He spent three weeks in hospital in October of 2022 and was on dialysis for a month and a half, battling kidney failure, fatigue and muscle loss. He says however he can’t remember much of the stay in hospital anymore.
Brabant filed the lawsuit against the City of Orillia and two of its contractors claiming they failed to keep him and about 30 others safe when they were sickened by legionella bacteria in the fall of 2022. The lawsuit filed in the Superior Court of Justice claims the city and those responsible for maintaining, cleaning and inspecting the cooling tower, where legionella was later found in September of that year, failed to take reasonable care of the facility and were negligent.
“They knew that there was cases from 2019 and they didn’t do anything about it but it took somebody dying for them to have to step up,” he says.
A 60-year-old Barrie man died of pneumonia that October according to the health unit.
Rotary Place was closed for several weeks while the city worked to find short and longer-term solutions to the cooling tower bacteria problem.
The lawsuit claims “As a result of the legionella outbreak and resulting illness Brabant continues to suffer decreased lung, heart and kidney function,” adding his “life expectancy has been significantly reduced.”
The city telling CTV News:
“As a standard practice” it “does not provide public comment regarding legal matters.”
Brabant, who lives in west Orillia but never entered the Rotary Place building prior to becoming sick, believes it happened when he was pumping gas nearby.
- Download the CTV News app to get local alerts on your device
- Get the latest local updates sent to your email inbox
“Just going about my daily life and had no clue that anything like this could happen to me and it did and I’m paying the price for it,” he says.
Brabant says he expects to have a response from the defendants by the end of the month. The allegations against them have not been tested in court.
CTVNews.ca Top Stories
Trump confronts repeated boos during raucous Libertarian convention speech
Donald Trump was booed repeatedly while addressing Saturday night’s Libertarian Party National Convention.
Grayson Murray, two-time PGA Tour winner, dead at 30
Two-time PGA Tour winner Grayson Murray died Saturday morning at age 30, one day after he withdrew from the Charles Schwab Cup Challenge at Colonial.
Family of toddler found dead at small-town Ont. daycare no closer to answers after year of investigation
A year has passed since two-year-old Vienna Irwin was found on the property of a home-based daycare in small-town Ontario, but her family says they are no closer to answers of what happened that day.
Here's what every key witness said at Donald Trump's hush money trial. Closing arguments are coming
After 22 witnesses, including a porn actor, tabloid publisher and White House insiders, testimony is over at Donald Trump’s criminal trial in New York.
More seniors are using homeless shelters. Here's why, according to experts
One of the country’s homeless shelters has seen an uptick in the number of people through its doors, including more older adults over 50.
This type of screen time has the worst effect on kids: experts
According to some experts, there is one type of screen time that is continuously excessive, and it's having a severe effect on our children.
Norway hands over papers for diplomatic recognition to the Palestinian prime minister
Norway on Sunday handed over diplomatic papers to the Palestinian prime minister in the latest step toward recognizing a Palestinian state, a largely symbolic move that has infuriated Israel.
Man or machine? Toronto company finds a way to determine how real audio clips are
The Toronto-based research arm of life sciences technology firm Klick Health has found a way to analyze voices in a manner that’s so granular, it can tell whether it's a person or an artificial intelligence-powered machine.
J.H. Tabaret statue at uOttawa vandalized
The statue of J.H. Tabaret at the University of Ottawa (uOttawa) has been vandalized, as a picture taken by CTV News shows red paint sprayed all over it.