Nick Lyon, Michigan's director of Health and Human Services, has been charged with involuntary manslaughter for his role in the public health crisis in Flint that stemmed from lead in the drinking water, according to CBS News.
Eden Wells, MD, chief medical executive with the state health department, is charged with obstruction of justice. Mr. Lyon and Dr. Wells are the highest ranking officials to be charged in the state attorney general's investigation into the crisis. More than a dozen former state and city officials have been criminally charged in connection to the event.
Mr. Lyon is accused of failing to inform the public about the Legionnaires' outbreak linked to the contaminated water.
In 2014, Flint switched its source of water from Lake Huron to the Flint River even though various experts had deemed the water unfit for consumption.
Mona Hanna-Attisha, MD, director of the pediatric residency program at Hurley Medical Center in Flint, first blew the whistle over lead in the drinking water in September 2015 when she confirmed the proportion of children with elevated lead levels in their blood doubled since the city switched its source of water.
In 2014 and 2015, at least 12 people in Flint died from Legionnaire’s.
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