Michigan Health Director Nick Lyon and four other officials (click here) are accused of failing to act on a Legionnaires' disease outbreak associated with the city’s lead-poisoning problems.
June 14, 2017
By Vann R. Newkirk
On Wednesday morning, Michigan Department of Health and Human Services Director Nick Lyon became both the highest-ranking person charged in the ongoing Flint water-crisis investigation. He and four other Michigan officials received the first involuntary manslaughter charges in the investigation as well.
Michigan Attorney General Bill Schuette’s office charged Lyon with involuntary manslaughter in court in connection to deaths caused by an outbreak of Legionnaire’s disease, which many experts believe occurred because Lyon’s department failed to warn Flint residents of the dangers of their crumbling water infrastructure. His subordinate Eden Wells, the chief medical officer of the department, was also charged with obstruction of justice and lying to a police officer.
Later, during a press conference, Schuette announced that he would be charging four additional officials, including former Flint Emergence Manager Darnell Earley, former state environmental official Liane Shekter-Smith, former Flint Public Works director Howard Croft, and state water supervisor Stephen Busch with manslaughter, in addition to previously announced against them. All five of the involuntary manslaughter charges, including Lyon’s, are linked to the death of Robert Skidmore, who died from Legionnaire’s disease in 2015 before a public outbreak notice was issued....
The acute kidney failure means there was a sudden onset of kidney failure.
Mr. Nelson did not have a kidney disease before he fell ill with Legionella pneumonia. Bacterial infections like this often result in "septic shock" which takes the life of the victim through system failures of the body. It is not a simple or easy death.
By Elisha Anderson
This death certificate shows Flushing resident Dwayne Nelson, 63, died of legionella pneumonia on Aug. 7, 2015, after being treated at a Flint hospital.
...Odie Brown, 65, of Flint died Jan. 16, 2015, (click here) at University of Michigan Hospital in Ann Arbor after being transported from Hurley Medical Center in Flint, her family said. She liked cruises and visited the Cayman Islands, Jamaica and the Bahamas....
...John Snyder, 83, of Flint died June 30, 2015, at McLaren Flint. He loved to make homemade wine, was a huge Michigan State Spartans fan and avid snow skier, once skiing the Alps the same day that he water skied in the Mediterranean, his family said....
...Nelda Hunt, 80, of Clio died July 22, 2015, at McLaren Flint. She played cards with church friends twice a week at her home and enjoyed embroidery when her vision was better earlier in life....
...Patricia Schaffer, 81, of Flushing died July 23, 2015, at McLaren Flint. She was Irish, spent a week decorating her home for St. Patrick’s Day each year and enjoyed Irish dancing. She had a heart procedure in April, went back to the hospital shortly after she was released and tested positive for Legionella, her family said....
...Debra Kidd, 58, of Burton died Aug. 2, 2015, at Genesys Regional Medical Center in Grand Blanc. She liked playing cards, listening to music, took care of her grandchildren during the workday and made a famous breakfast casserole on Christmas day....
...Dwayne Nelson, 63, of Flushing died Aug. 7, 2015, at McLaren Flint. He worked as a salesman at ABC Warehouse and fished for a hobby. Nelson, a father of two grown daughters, had been diagnosed with lung cancer last May and underwent radiation and chemotherapy....
...Thomas Mulcahy, 80, of Corunna died Aug. 22, 2015, in hospice care at his home in Shiawassee County. He was passionate about farming and liked tractors, his obituary said....
...Arthur (Art) Percy, 74, of Montrose died Aug. 31, 2015, at his home. He was a lifelong barber honored as Michigan Barber of the Year five times, an avid Detroit Tigers fan and had a 1952 Ford pickup that was a prized possession, his obituary said. He had multiple myeloma for five years....
