PITTSBURGH — A federal judge has approved a $227,500 settlement of a wrongful death lawsuit brought by the estate of an 83-year-old Navy veteran who contracted Legionnaire’s disease at a Pittsburgh Veterans Affairs hospital.

The veteran, John Ciarolla, of North Versailles, died of the severe form of pneumonia — which is spread by bacteria commonly found in water supplies — on July 18, 2011, less than a month after he was admitted to the VA hospital in the city’s Oakland section for a urinary tract infection.