By Illinois Radio Network/Greg Bishop
SPRINGFIELD – A shuttered nursing home in Quincy has been rehabbed, renamed and reopened as a temporary facility to house veterans while a modern home is built.
More than a dozen people have died at the Quincy Veterans Home since 2014 from a respiratory disease caused by Legionella bacteria being inhaled through water vapor.
Gov. Bruce Rauner’s administration moved ahead with a $230 million plan for a new facility that included buying and overhauling the nearby and once-closed Sycamore Health Center as temporary housing.
On Friday, Rauner announced the new name of the temporary housing as Lester Hammond Hall, after a Korean War Medal of Honor recipient.
“He represents everything that’s great about America,” Rauner said. “Here in Illinois, [he] grew up in the beautiful community of Quincy, enrolled in the Army at a young age and went off to defend democracy in the Korean conflict. He and his unit penetrated deep behind enemy lines, came under heavy fire, he would not withdraw. In fact, he called in the airstrike that ultimately [led] to victory for us in the battle, but it took his life in the process.
“Naming this facility after him [is] the first and many steps we’re taking to make the Quincy Veterans Home the most modern, the most effective, the most wonderful place for our veterans to live and receive the health care that they and their families deserve,” Rauner said.
Members of Hammond’s family were in attendance for Friday’s dedication.
Strategic Initiatives for Alliance to Prevent Legionnaires Disease Director Brad Considine said that during the transition to the temporary facility, state officials must ensure the water source itself is clean.
“Before anyone can manage [Legionella] in a building, they need to start with good clean water,” Considine said.
The Rauner administration has worked with the city of Quincy to get a new groundwater well as an alternate water source outside of the Mississippi River.
Critics have criticized Rauner for his handling of the Quincy outbreak. Chief rival Democrat J.B. Pritzker said in a statement Friday that Rauner mismanaged the outbreak.
“Years of inaction from the Rauner administration has prompted a dozen negligence lawsuits from families and a criminal probe by the Attorney General,” Pritzker said. “But now, just weeks before Election Day, Rauner is cutting a ribbon after years of fatal mismanagement.”
Attorney General Lisa Madigan said earlier this month that her office launched a criminal probe into the handling of the outbreak and if any laws were violated in how the Rauner administration handled notifications to the public and media. The administration has denied any wrongdoing.
Considine said the outbreak may not have been the building’s fault at all.
“Well run buildings with robust programs can have their whole situation upset by biofilm breaking lose in the [water systems] piping system and sending contaminants in the building,” Considine said.
It’s not just public facilities that are at risk.
In Champaign, there have been reports of six county residents getting Legionnaires’ disease since last month. Investigators are looking at several locations, including a church where a wedding was held, as they try to pinpoint the source of the outbreak.
Considine said outbreaks can happen anywhere because the bacteria occur naturally. He said when inhaled through water vapor, it can put certain populations at greater risk.
“It’s common in the elderly, people who have been smokers, people who have underlying conditions like cancer or asthma,” Considine said.
