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"It's tragic." For months John Gerace has been waiting for answers, “She should still be with us."

With a state investigation into a hospital acquired bacterial outbreak completed, Gerace said, “It's been dwindled down to about six sentences."

And he's still waiting.

Gerace said, "This didn't tell us anything."

John said he already knows what killed his 86 year old aunt, "It was C. diff. it was on her death certificate that it was C. diff."

What he wanted to know was what the state department of health is doing to protect others.

“This still shouldn't be happening,” said Gerace.

One local expert agrees.

Dr. Ghinwa Dumyati said, “The rate is high overall we feel and there is potential to decrease it."

Dr. Dumyati is heading a collaborative effort among all four major hospitals in Rochester to better control this bacteria.

Dumyati said, "Death is not very common but if it can be prevented that's really the aim."

C. diff. lives in a person's large intestine. Infection usually occurs when patients with underlying health problems are prescribed high doses of antibiotics.

Dumyati said, “They tend to kill all the good bacteria that's in your large intestine."

Another problem is sanitation. Dumyati says infection control policies aren't uniform from hospital to hospital. staff, visitors and patients themselves spread this bacteria by following some policies and ignoring others.

“We're going to monitor how well the room is cleaned and we're also going to monitor how well people follow the isolation guidelines,” said Dumyati.

Since this effort began in 2008 there has been improvement but a recent report still gives New York a failing grade when controlling these kinds of infections.

“The state health department should be investigated," said Gerace.

After a six month investigation John says there's only one thing he knows for sure, "my aunt Margaret should still be with us right now and that's not the case, and it's not the case for a lot of other people that our out there."