MONCTON -- It's been months since Claudette Lirette has felt like herself.

After being diagnosed with legionnaires' disease this summer, she was forced into a medically-induced coma.

"It's been tough," Lirette said.

The outbreak was declared in August and 16 people came down with the disease.

One cooling tower in the city's west end tested positive for legionella, but the Department of Health refused to say which one.

That secrecy did not sit well with some patients.

"If people are getting sick, you want to know exactly where it's coming from," Lirette said. "You don't want to sit there and speculate about this place or that place."

Public Health declared the site safe and said it no longer posed a risk to the public.

But it wasn't an answer Lirette, or her brother-in-law, were satisfied with.

"We shouldn't be settling for that," said Rob Demone, Lirette's brother-in-law. "The public should be given better information from the government. We rely on them to protect us and make sure this doesn't happen again."

Lirette is now looking into taking legal action and is meeting with lawyers about her options.

"I want to find out the answer and I want to find out if I have any legal cause to get anything from it, because I almost died," Lirette said.

CTV Atlantic reached out to the New Brunswick Health Department for reaction, but no one was willing to comment.

In the meantime, Lirette says she will meet with former patients this weekend who contracted the disease to discuss their struggles and to explore the idea of a class-action lawsuit.

Demone says talk of legal action could have been avoided had the company with the cooling tower containing legionella made a statement of their own.

"Tell Monctonians, 'Yes, it was us, we are sorry, and we pledge that it will never happen again,'" Demone said. "That would probably be good enough for most people."

While Lirette has been cleared by doctors, she says her physical and mental health will never be the same.

"It's just driving me crazy, because I used to be able to do a lot of things," Lirette said. "Now, I can't even walk to the store."

She is hoping the legal route will bring her the answers she's looking for and some closure.