Congressman Murphy Leads Legionnaires’ Disease Outbreak Hearing

U.S. Rep. Tim Murphy (R-Upper St. Clair) presided over the Veterans’ Affairs Committee's investigative hearing on the outbreak of Legionnaires’ disease at the VA Hospital in Pittsburgh—and he showed up in a wheelchair Tuesday morning.

Twitter was abuzz with the news when Washington correspondent of Cox Media Group Seth MacFarlene sent out the tweet:

Rep Tim Murphy (R-PA) enters House VA Cmte hearing in wheelchair. Suffering back injury, spokeswoman says.

Patch reached out to Murphy's spokeswoman, who was busy with the hearing. Murphy was able to get out of the wheelchair and get into a regular chair during the hearing.

Murphy grilled officials about what was done during the Legionnaires’ disease outbreak at the local VA hospital. He posted the following on his Facebook page before the hearing:

I’ve just learned that the Centers for Disease Control report into the outbreak confirms five patients died and more than 20 became ill. Furthermore, the VA Hospital may have had elevated levels of Legionella in its water supply more than a year before the CDC was called in to address the problem in December. At today's hearing, I intend to ask if VA officials took appropriate measures to protect veterans and workers in light of the outbreak, and what steps must be taken to prevent this from ever happening again.

Follow Patch as we gather more information about the hearing.