Woman files claim against UW Medicine after contracting Legionnaires' disease

For 32-year-old Victoria Martin, just walking into a room with her lawyer to do a television interview with me is a major accomplishment.

A month and a half ago, Martin was lying in a bed at the University of Washington Medical Center, recovering from a heart transplant. What she didn't know then was she was also sick from the legionella bacteria.

"All I knew was that it was like some pneumonia," Martin said. "And I didn't understand what was going on."

"Because of the heart transplant?" she was asked.

"Because of the heart transplant," she replied. "It was a very, very rough go across the board."

Indeed she didn't fully comprehend until the UW sent out its first news release that three cardiac patients had contracted Legionnaires' disease. And that she was the only one to survive.

"And so when I read about it, that's when I was like 'Wow, this is insane,'” she said. "This is not okay."

That's when she contacted lawyer Ralph Brindley.

"They had contaminated water that was contaminated with Legionnaires' disease," said Brindley. "In a unit in a hospital where they had transplant patients who were immuno suppressed and very susceptible to infections. The results can be catastrophic as they were."

Martin says her claim is for those who didn't survive.

"These families sat there and watched them ge, you know, sicker and sicker every single day," she said. "Over something that didn't need to happen. You know I was very, very, very lucky that I did survive."

Martin says she doesn't believe hospital officials acted quickly enough to find and cut off the source of the legionella.

She hopes her claim will prompt quicker action in the future.

So that no other lives will be lost in what is supposed to be a healing place.

Cox Media Group