A class action lawsuit seeking $600 million in damages has been launched on behalf of a man who became ill following the deadly outbreak of legionnaires' disease in an East Toronto nursing home.

Gerald Glover, 58, was infected with legionnaires' disease earlier this month during the outbreak at the Seven Oaks Home for the Aged in Scarborough.

His family is baffled because Glover lives in a building across the parking lot from the home, and they say he hasn't even been in Seven Oaks.

Glover collapsed on Oct. 5 and was admitted to hospital with kidney failure, pneumonia and temporary loss of memory and hearing.

Glover's daughter Cheryl Glover told CTV News that the suit is aimed at addressing her family's suffering.

"It's never been about the money," she said. "We've been to the hospital and seen what they go through .... my dad has been hooked up to IVs in his arms and a huge one in his neck because of kidney failure, his stomach is all bruised up from being a pin cushion, and we still have no answers."

The Glover family's lawyer, Glyn Hotz, said he has received phone calls from others interested in joining the class action suit. He said residents should have been better protected.

"Toronto Public Health should have taken measures to protect people in the home," Hotz said. "They should have had preventative antibiotics and maybe even have moved people. They certainly should have shut the ventilation off, and instead they warned nobody."

Toronto health officials said droplets of legionnaires' bacteria were distributed into the air by the cooling system on the roof of the Seven Oaks Home and then sucked into the ventilation system's air intake.

Toronto health officials said they ordered the cooling tower shut down on Oct. 6, when the disease was detected.

To date the outbreak has killed 21 people, the latest victim being an 89-year-old woman who died Monday.

All told there have been 127 cases of legionnaires' disease, including 67 residents, 30 staff and 26 visitors.

Glover is one of four people who live or work in close proximity to Seven Oaks Home for the Aged who have also contracted the disease, likely infected by droplets that escaped the building through the cooling tower.