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New PBS broadcast shows possibly more Flint legionnaires deaths than reported


From PBS Frontline 1.jpg
From PBS Frontline 1.jpg
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(FLINT, Mich.) In a national broadcast that's airs Tuesday on PBS, Frontline focuses on the Flint water crisis.

Its the latest in a series of documentaries that has looked in-depth of what went wrong.

There are a couple of areas in the program called "Flint's Deadly Water", that people may not have seen before.

One involves the late operations manager at the Flint water plant, Matt McFarland.

They talked to his sister.

Tonja Petrella said"I remember specifically, the day before they actually flipped the switch, he called me and he said, 'Tonja, contact everyone that you know in Flint, anybody you care about, and tell them, do not drink the water, it's not safe. We're not ready," and finally warned: "People are gonna die."

Frontline's team also found that the death toll from the outbreak of legionnaires' disease, likely rose to numbers far higher than the 12 officially recorded.

Frontline hired a team from Emory University to investigate and they feel the 70 people who died from pneumonia at that same time, may have had legionaries, too.

Producer Abby Ellis of Frontline says "With legionnaires, if medical officials don't know that there's an out break they may not test for it, they may not diagnose it and it often times misdiagnosed as just pneumonia. And so what we found was 70 pneumonia deaths that coincided with the outbreak."

Ellis says she's not finished in Flint, there will be additional reporting.

"Flint's Deadly Water", premieres Tuesday night on Frontline on PBS.

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