Glenwood Hot Springs therapy pool
*UPDATE* March 10, 2015 — Hot Springs pool’s insurer denies my claim
Invasion of the Body Snatchers – Part 4
Last summer on two occasions, August 6 and August 13, 2014, the Glenwood Hot Springs therapy pool tested positive for pseudomonas aeruginosa.
This is a report of my investigation.
During the month of August, as my health condition deteriorated (see Part 1), we considered several possibilities as to what could be making me sick, including food allergies and Silt’s water. Even though I don’t drink tap water, I still shower, bathe and cook with it.
Another possibility was the Glenwood Hot Springs pool. I’ve been a member for 18 years and visit regularly 2-3 times a week. Even though in all those years I have never been sickened by the pool, we wondered if I might have picked up an e-coli infection from the hot therapy pool. A close friend had experienced stomach cramps and diarrhea after soaking in the hot therapy pool, and so had my husband Tod. Both had recovered within a day or two but my symptoms had worsened.
On August 28, I emailed the pool’s maintenance department via their website contact form. I explained that I had been feeling sick after visiting the pool and was concerned the chlorine levels in both pools were not adequate for the huge summer crowds. Brian Ammerman, maintenance director, responded to my concerns via email during the first week of September. I didn’t keep the email. But as I recall, he offhandedly dismissed my concerns.
I was diagnosed with pseudomonas aeruginosa in mid-October (see Part 1). During my initial research, I learned that public swimming pools and hot tubs were a common source for pseudomonas aeruginosa infections. Prior to my diagnosis I had never heard of pseudomonas aeruginosa. Even if I had, my assumption would have been that the Hot Springs pool uses chlorine and/or other chemicals to prevent the growth of bacteria. After all, they conduct daily testing and are subject to inspection by the public health department, and there would be documents to back up the tests and inspections.
On October 24, 2014, I sent an email to the Garfield County Public Health Department via the website. I informed them of my diagnosis. I said I suspected the Glenwood Hot Springs pool might be the source and asked them to investigate and inspect the pools.
On October 28, I received an email from Morgan Hill, county environmental health specialist, stating: “[W]e received your website inquiry and are following up on your concern related to pseudomonas at the Glenwood hot springs pool. We will contact you soon with more information.”
After an unannounced pool closure occurred November 4 and 5, I figured something was up. At the time I was too sick to manage any sort of follow-up. Besides, Hill had said they would get back to me, so I took her at her word.
By Wednesday morning, November 12, I hadn’t heard back, so I sent an email to Hill and asked whether the pool had been investigated and inspected, and would they please send me the lab results.
I received a reply almost immediately from GarCo Environmental Health Manager Joshua Williams. Attached to his email were the lab results from Zancanella & Associates which showed the therapy pool tested positive for pseudomonas aeruginosa on August 6, 2014, and August 13, 2014. Included was a Memorandum from Tom and Tony Zancanella dated October 29, 2014. The county had been sitting on those rest results for 2 weeks, and then waited until I requested them.
Email from GarCo Environmental Health Manager Joshua Williams
Memorandum from Zancanella & Associates and Summary of 3 months bacteria testing
Key sentence from the Memorandum:
The Therapy pool results were 3.0 MPN and 1.0 MPN over the two testing occasions.
If you click on the Memorandum link, on page 2, highlighted in blue, you will see the therapy pool tested positive for pseudomonas on August 6 and August 13.
This next sentence from the Memorandum is also key:
The only other time Pseudomonas was sampled was in 2011 and all of the results were determined to be <1.0 MPN, there were approximately four set of samples taken.
In other words, prior to testing for pseudomonas aeruginosa in August 2014, the Glenwood Hot Springs pool had not been tested for the bacteria since 2011.
Even though I had suspected the pool might be the source of my infection, the test results confirmed it. I was furious. Equally infuriating was this line from Joshua Williams’ email:
Although we understand that this is a significant personal health matter for you, we do not determine this to be a public health issue warranting further investigation by the county, at this time.
The lab results proved pseudomonas aeruginosa contamination in the therapy pool and I’m sick but that’s not “a public health issue warranting further investigation.”
How many other pool visitors are sick and don’t know they’ve been exposed to pseudomonas? We don’t know because the county public health department doesn’t want to investigate.
Yet again I was too sick to do anything about it. The week before Thanksgiving I did talk to a lawyer who advised me to confront the pool manager in a letter. On November 22, I sent a letter to Glenwood Hot Springs president and CEO Kjell Mitchell describing my health condition and diagnosis. I included copies of the Zancanellas’ Memorandum and the first page of the test results and cc’d Brian Ammerman, the maintenance director. I haven’t heard from Mitchell or Ammerman.
However during the first week of December, I received a phone call from a claims rep with Secura Insurance on behalf of the Hot Springs pool. After a lengthy deposition by phone, she told me my claim was “under investigation” and they would get back to me. That phone call was followed by a medical records release form and request for health care providers and dates of service, which I provided.
I was concerned about going public with the information. There was no admission that my infection was caused from the Hot Springs therapy pool contamination. Not from the Hot Springs pool management, their insurance company, or Garfield County. I was concerned they would find an excuse to weasel out of paying my medical bills. My medical bills still have not been paid.**
It is not now and never has been my responsibility to inform the public that my infection came from contamination in the Hot Springs therapy pool. That is the responsibility of the public health department.
By sweeping this public health issue under the rug it looks like Garfield County is covering for the Glenwood Hot Springs pool.
I might have thought that was the end of it – case closed. But I had done my research and I still have a lot of questions.
My number one question:
How did the Hot Springs therapy pool become contaminated with pseudomonas aeruginosa?
Pseudomonas aeruginosa growth does not occur naturally in swimming pools and hot tubs. It must be introduced into the water by another source, usually a human source.
“P. aeruginosa is ubiquitous in water, vegetation and soil. Although shedding from infected humans is the predominant source of P. aeruginosa in pools and hot tubs,” according to the World Health Organization’s (WHO) Guidelines for safe recreational water environments; Volume 2: Swimming pools and similar environments.
In my research I learned that pseudomonas aeruginosa is commonly used by the oil & gas industry to clean up hydrocarbon spills (see Part 2). Touted by the industry as environmentally safe, the product they use is far from safe. The industry uses a potent, laboratory-produced strain of pseudomonas aeruginosa that is designed to withstand harsh conditions. The product is aerosolized and sprayed onto hydrocarbon spills.
It is unlikely that a worker would know what the substance is that he’s spraying. It would probably have a commercial product name like “gunk out” or something.
Because the product is sprayed, theoretically a worker could accidentally spray it on his clothing and/or skin. The worker could then visit the Glenwood Hot Springs pool, neglect to shower before entering the hot therapy pool, and contaminate the pool.
There’s something else that bothers me. Typically, exposure to pseudomonas aeruginosa in a swimming pool or hot tub results in skin infections and ear infections. According to my doctor (and the lab that conducted my tests concurs) I have a potent, fast-growing strain of pseudomonas aeruginosa that is antibiotic resistant. We know it’s lodged in my large intestine, but maybe my small intestine, too. Who can say? Anyway, it’s not like I drink the pool water. But I certainly do inhale the vapors. Aside from the fact that my immune system was dysfunctional at the time I was exposed, the point is, this is not a typical pseudomonas infection from a public pool. I got really sick really fast. During my initial treatment phase the release of exotoxins, caused by the antibiotic breaking the bacterial biofilm, nearly killed me. Six months later I am still undergoing treatment. I am still infected. I have not recovered.
Let’s go back to one of the key statements in the Zancanellas’ Memorandum to the Hot Springs pool:
The only other time Pseudomonas was sampled was in 2011 and all of the results were determined to be <1.0 MPN, there were approximately four set of samples taken.
Obviously this tells me pool doesn’t regularly test for pseudomonas. Is this because the management is grossly negligent? Or is it because pseudomonas contamination is a rare occurrence? The evidence points to the latter because the results were lower in 2011 than in 2014.
While the Center For Disease Control (CDC) has not set a limit for levels of pseudomonas in swimming pools, a 3.0 MPN result is significant, comparable to levels detected in small lakes and ponds where pseudomonas grows naturally. That 3.0 MPN test result from August 6 was not a minor contamination.
Maybe I’ve lived in Garfield County too long, but I can see a broader cover up in play here.
Let’s look at what didn’t happen.
In his November 12 email, GarCo Environmental Health Manager Joshua Williams made this statement [emphasis added]: “[W]e do not determine this to be a public health issue warranting further investigation by the county, at this time.”
GarCo Public Health Department decided not to investigate. Therefore no one will identify the source, whether it was biological or laboratory-produced.
Call me crazy. But I find it absolutely incredible that no one at the health department is the slightest bit interested in obtaining samples from me to identify the source of my disease and whether it poses a public health threat. I had a baby in Colorado, and my daughter had two babies in Colorado, and we had the health department all up in our faces making sure those babies didn’t pose a public health threat. So what’s with this?
Let’s hope no one with ebola or measles shows up in Garfield County. They don’t care.
Oh. That’s right. The oil & gas industry doesn’t spray ebola or measles on hydrocarbon spills.
**Update 1/29/15: I received a phone call from the claims rep at Secura Insurance (on behalf of the Hot Springs pool). She said they have collected most of my medical records and are still waiting for more.
*Footnote*
How am I feeling? Better than I did a month ago, which means my immune system is stronger and my body is tolerating the antibiotic regimen. I feel like I have the flu all the time — stomach ache, nausea, and body aches. Recovery is painstakingly slow but I am making progress. Thanks for asking!
Part 5 — Hot Springs pool’s insurer denies my claim
Categories: brown cloud, Garfield County, public health
From the Styx 
Thanks for your continuing work and research.
i am wondering what you symptoms are/were? My boyfriend and I went the first week of October I believe and he woke up the next morning with a huge infection In his lip. Went to the er they said it was from the hot springs. He hasn’t felt good since! If you cold please email me back that would be great! Thank you!
What my symptoms were and are don’t matter.
“Pseudomonal infections can involve any part of the body.” Follow this link for a complete list: http://emedicine.medscape.com/article/226748-clinical
OBTW, your boyfriend should get tested sooner rather than later.
Please report this to The Post Independent and The Daily Sentinel. This should be known.
Done.
Thank you, again, Peggy for enlightening us on another environmental issue we all need to be aware of; swimming in public pools and hot tubs. I am a certified pool operator, and managed a public swimming pool for 5 years in VT, 1 year in WY, and 3 months right here in Glenwood Springs at the Community Center. A health issue I have noted many times at the GW Hotsprings Pool is how they don’t enforce swim suits over diapers for babies.
The most disturbing issue I’ve noticed is how they rope off a section of water that was contaminated by vomit or feces. CPO’s are trained to close the pool until all the water can be circulated through the filter system before patrons are allowed back in the water. I have had to do this before, and it is imperative to maintain patron health. I have never reported this, and I will the next time I’m a witness.
I’m grateful to you for your persistence in researching your medical problems, and letting us all know about it. I really hope you feel better soon.
I recommend that you contact, Dr. Anna Bernstein in Glenwood Springs. She helped save my life when I fell very ill with a bacterial infection many years ago. I’m certain she can help you, too. BTW, Probiotics are essential in getting over any kind of bacterial infection.
Thank you, I am seeing an excellent doctor who specializes in internal medicine. Probiotics, yes, I take massive doses of powerful probiotics. Plus five Chinese herbs, 5 Chinese mushrooms, phytonutrients, vitamins and a variety of other herbal supplements.
You’re welcome Mary. The issues you bring up support my contention. The county public health dept is supposed to regulate and inspect public pools. Obviously they aren’t doing their job.
Hi, thanks for sharing. I am a nutritionist and I have designed a bacterial cleanse for people in similar situations, that need to add in beneficial bacteria and kill off harmful, pathogenic species. I think it could be very helpful for you. It is essential for anyone who has been on multiple rounds of antibiotics, in addition to the infection. Please contact me if you’d like to discuss this. Good luck, Marissa
Dear Peggy, I am so sorry to read your story and learn about your illness. There is a wonderful Functional Medicine Doctor in Carbondale, her name is Dr. Lisa Fitzwilliams, her business is called Aspen Self Health (http://www.meta-ehealth.com/site/office/index.jsp), she is a specialist when it comes to detoxing toxins safely and helping you rebuild your system. She is an angel and I can’t say enough good things about her, I highly recommend getting in contact with her. Good luck, I will be sending you healing vibes. XO, Lindsay
Peggy if you wish to contact me, I would be happy to visit with you and sample you some essential oils that may help. Monicagoodsell@gmail.com
So what I’m seeing is maybe you infected the pool?! If it’s transferred through people who have it going to the pool and you have it, and go to the pool! Pretty crazy how your mind works….
Co
There has to be a source. If I infected the pool it still doesn’t answer the question: how did I get pseudomonas? I don’t swim in lakes or ponds, I don’t eat dirt, I wasn’t hospitalized, and I don’t work in the gas fields. But we’ll never know because the public health dept didn’t do a proper investigation. I self-reported my diagnosis. Beyond that, public health is not my problem.
I’m simply curious;
You said that your child and grand children were under scrutiny by the health department…… why?
Thanks.
Did I say my child and grandchildren were under scrutiny by the health department? Where did I say that? And when?
Last April, my daughter Ema, and her daughter Hailey, and I had our blood and urine tested for VOCs. We tested positive for ethylbenzene, xylene, styrene, and probably toluene.
https://fromthestyx.wordpress.com/2014/04/17/3-generations-of-oil-and-gas-contamination/
Both the state and the county public health departments were notified about that and far from scrutiny — neither one contacted us or cared.
There’s an awful lot of accusations here.
I see Co’s point. If swimming pool infections usually result in skin/ear infections, it’s plausible that you were patient zero. You can get pseudomonas from the tap water in your home, and if you cook with it, that seems like a more likely explanation for a gut infection than a pool. For not knowing for sure, there’s a lot of blame being thrown around in this post.
The part that Clay was questioning was your comment:
“I had a baby in Colorado, and my daughter had two babies in Colorado, and we had the health department all up in our faces making sure those babies didn’t pose a public health threat.”
You need to do more research on pseudomonas. You can’t get from tap water. If that was the case, everyone in Silt would be infected.
Pseudomonas is a communicable disease. If I am patient zero then the health dept should be focused on me.
Anyone who has had a baby in Colorado knows what I’m talking about. You get a visit from a public health dept employee who checks out you and your baby. So my point is they pay more attention to newborn babies than they do to a report of a communicable disease found in a public swimming pool, or an individual who reports a communicable disease.
Reblogged this on maloneyblog and commented:
Terrifying! Pay attention readers- the people we trust to blow the whistle and keep us safe consider this ‘not a threat’!
I wholeheartedly disagree. I’m an eye doctor, and people have been getting corneal infections from pseudomonas by using tap water on their contact lenses for decades. It is absolutely found in tap water. Check your facts. Pseudomonas is everywhere, it just has to be given an opportunity to jump on board and cause an infection.
I’ve had three babies – and never a visit from a public health employee, so I’m not sure what that’s about. The point of my question was to clarify for Clay’s question.
I don’t have an eye infection. I have pseudomonas in my guts.
If it makes you feel better to think that I am the cause of the pool contamination that’s okay with me.
Still think Fracking is safe Colorado… Think again one of the fracking sites as close to new castle could have introduced this stuff into the hot springs. I don’t think it was on a human… I believe that it was introduced to the ground water you could be drinking it…
Did you hire an attorney for your medical issues? Since you can directly prove it was their fault? I hope they’re covering your medical expenses.
Emily, I contacted 6 attorneys (GWS, GJ, and Denver). Only 2 would talk to me and the other 4 ignored my phone calls and emails. None of them felt I had a case.
Peggy,
There is no doubt the pool is a cesspool of gross, just like every public pool. I know the risks and I don’t go there because of that. This definitely opens the eyes of the public and hopefully something gets done about this. However, there is no need for you to be so rude to folks responding to you or this article. You sharing your story opened yourself up for people to ask questions. If you don’t want to answer them then don’t share about yourself at all.
it doesnt matter if the hot springs is that actual cause of this woman’s illness, it may or may not be, but if people have went in and tested the water and it was positive then it should be closed down til its dealt with either way, and awesome for her for trying to let other people know not to swim there, i live close to glenwood and im glad to find this out so i dont go there with my kiddo 🙂
wouldnt hurt to do a run of Oregano oil(powerful antibiotic), grapefruit seed extract and silver. If u already havent.
It would se to me that the concern of the pool and officials is the almighty $$$ they might lose…in this world a human life doesn’t have much value.
Make sure you take Plantarum, which is an especially effective probiotic for bacterial infections.
{Peggy,My husband Alan & I ,Summer weisel met you & your dogs and man.. Todd? up on The xc ski trail on Beauford rd. a few years ago. We also lived on Silt Mesa ,we sold in April 2013. and moved to Palisade to be closer to family in Grand J. I just want you to know I am very sorry to hear of your illness!… Amazed at your tenacity. And certainly hope for justice to be served too. As Jesus said, “Money is the root of all kinds of evil’. Your living the truth of that statement right now.I once again am so sorry to hear about your troubles! Summer & Alan Weisel. Keep getting better! The probiotics are miracle workers. We have been harmed a great deal by unscrupulous property owners in the Roaring Fork valley having to deal with water.Dating back to 1985. Way before fracking or the internet. Thank God no one in my family died as a result. We would have a VERY WEALTHY family if I had the Knowledge available to us now… The internet etc…! OMG! Back then it was ranching issues. Ugh.
Summer, of course I remember you. Thanks for peeking in and leaving a comment. As I recall you have some serious health issues of your own. I hope you are well. Say hi to Alan.
Unfortunately Garfield County and the state have a long history of putting profits over public health. This is one more example.
I think you should go to your local health food store and find Garden of Life’s Ultra Primal Defense. It’s a supplement that should help with what you have going on
Please contact high country news – they do great investigative reporting.
a friend of mine and I vist the hot springs often up untill an incendent that occurred at the end of October. This incendent which I did not witness but very much saw the aftermath was beyond what I could imagine from an individual. The pool staff had not yet been notified of the multiple messes that were the result of the loss of bowels just outside the pool and again outside the locker room door and once again inside the locker room door. While the staff promptly began clean up I was astonished that the pool remained with open with the quantity of mess which was left behind.
Hi Peggy….I was there last year and became very ill. Is the test a simple test and will my doctor know what they are looking for?
Christina
Christina, if you’re concerned that you were exposed to pseudomonas you should discuss it with your doctor and he will know what to do.
Pseudomonas can affect each person differently. The human body with a strong immune system can process pseudomonas out of the body and not become severely ill. Sort of like food poisoning, some people get it worse than others.
Call Erin Brockovich.
my friend got an eye infection from that pool last summer and ended up loosing his eye. I am passing this article on to him. It might be connected to his eye infection.
Peggy have you informed TEDX of your health issues? I have been thinking of Kathy Behr RN, ER Nurse in Durango (2009).
I’m sorry for your predicament and offer 1 solution and a comment. Read Hulda Clark’s a cure for all diseases and do her parasite cleanse which consist of Black Walnut, Wormwood and cloves and applying a wave generator. Also you can read her final book – The Prevention and Cure of all Cancers to get the specific organs affected by your friend as well as the frequency require to extinct it from your system and foods by which to starve it and thereby it will willfully leave!
I have another theory on the critter and how it got there and perhaps this is the real reason behind Garco’s and Environmental Agency sweeping this under the rug. It was not transported by an Oil and Gas Worker. Instead it has entered the water source through Fracking – the very technique which fractures the earth and pollutes the Aquifers and watersheds. This was the big concern for Thompson Divide! So now we see it’s not only the chemicals used in fracking but also the parasites. Use your common sense and make the connections the Government does not want you to see!
please try what worked for myself and many others
Humaworm.com
I am sorry for your illness, I am glad to read this now as I was planning a lil trip to the springs for my family. We dont live far…. I will plan a different location now.
However, I do agree with the optometrist…. it is found in tap water. It is common to get from rinsing your contacts in tap water. That ends up in an eye infection, i have heard of more than once in my life. The point isnt that you did or did not get it from the pool or that you did or did not give it to the pool. The point is, you are sick, diagnosed and know for fact through records that it is present in their pool and they are still allowing others to be contaminated and put at risk! Who What Where, doesnt matter at this stage. Preventing the spread of infection should be NUMBER ONE PRIORITY and I also believe it is considered a public ethical responsibility in a legal sense….. just like BP with an oil spill. This story makes me mad! Protect our community people! And the “hot springs” community is HUGE. We come from all over the state to sit there. Ridiculous!
Benita, I contacted TEDX last spring after our blood and urine tests found VOCs. So I haven’t contacted them specifically about my illness. I keep in touch with Susan Nagel, microbiologist at U of MO.
Reblogged this on akleslieprice.
I am a lifeguard at the Glenwood hotsprings and I would like to say this. If the infection is in your gut you would had to have drank the water and not just “inhaled the vapors.” And second the filtration system at the pool is a state of the art ozone filtration system that keeps cleaning the water from when it leaves the filter until it reaches the river. The hotsprings also uses chlorine in the water. The pool also turns over completely multiple times every day. I’m sorry to hear about your situation but please consider other places of origin before you jump to a major business in our valley that brings in tourists from everywhere across the globe. It seems like you are a sue happy person looking to make some big bucks from a lawsuit.
Jack, I’m not suing anyone. I don’t even have an attorney.
I think the public deserves to know that the pool tested positive for pseudomonas aeruginosa, the same disease I have. This is information the county health department has not made public.
Strange….i find it ALL to be a little odd and suspicious.
Peggy. First, right away google found this interesting piece: http://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/mm4948a2.htm
2nd. You say you are immunocompromised, but say nothing more of that. I see a lot of alternative health suggestions in the comments. Probably you do not need that right now. What I can say is that those with impaired immune function must be very hygienic compared other people. I thank you for posting this as it constitutes a warning for others. Hot spring pools can be fatal.
I have been visiting the Glenwood Hot Springs pool since I was a small boy. Born and raised a proud Coloradan! Let up on business man. You want that place to disappear like everything else we Colorado natives believe in. Go back to whatever red state you came from and stop shitting in our water and blaming it on something else so you can talk about it amoungt other people shitting in the same water. Try the rafting instead. Great moose shit in there. Wonder what their putting in the water.
Thank you so much for telling your story. I hope that you are feeling better very soon. this information is critical for the public. I am horrified at the HEALTH DEPARTAMENT’ nonchalance. what about the CDC ? Do children and teens use this pool? Contact some parent if they do . Also you are do compensation.
*due –
I was in the pool on August 17-18 and ended up with a virulent rash on my face, eyes and body. Thank you for doing this research!
I agree wholeheartedly with other’s comments about probiotics. I also recommend consuming fermented foods like Kefir, cultured sauerkraut, and Kombucha Tea to help naturally clear the microbes from your gut and restore balance. Cultured/fermented foods are generally much more powerful than the stuff you buy from the store in a pill.
I have also found a mushroom tincture to be especially powerful clearing my lung infections that I used to get every year.
Thank you for sharing this story, I just can’t believe that the health department would be so indifferent to these matters!! I’m not really into conspiracy theories, but this is got me wondering. I get why the springs manager would want to cover his butt and not say anything but the health department?!
Forget the daily Sentinel and independent newspaper, this needs to go national! The Glenwood Hot Springs is a worldwide tourist spot!!!
I probably keep the local Kombucha market in business. I live on it. I have severe nausea which makes it hard to eat. I’ve lost 25# in 3 months. Kombucha is food for me. I also take Five Ganoderma Formula — 5 Chinese mushrooms in tincture. Great stuff.
I’m sorry you’re dealing with health issues, and I share your concerns about things like VOC’s and fracking. That said, after reading your blog post and reading about pseudomonas elsewhere, it really feels like you’re tilting at windmills and looking to find blame where it may very well not exist. Even as you deal with your health problems, try to be fair to the people around you. Don’t turn normal environmental microbes into scandals and cover ups. Don’t let your anxiety around your health lead you to conflate a local business with corporate malfeasance on the scale of Monsanto. I don’t blame the health department for not investigating further, and I credit them for taking your concerns as seriously as they did.
So, if the pool is so bad … why do you continue to go there? (Don’t deny it … you have been seen there …)
Thank you for being a whisleblower because if we had more people like you that are willing to make a stand for the health and welfare of others….we may not be in all the predicaments we are in now worldwide.
I have suffered from illnesses before…like Chronic Fatigue Syndrome and people just don’t believe you and it is devastating and dibiltating. Instead of giving you a difficult time about your discovery and where it may or not have come from….they ALL should be thanking you for being the watch dog that neither the pool or health department wished to address from the sounds of things that just doesn’t surprise me in the least….$$$ over people…goes all the way to the top! Especially after it DID test for it!
I just want to commend you and any idiot that continues to berate you should just look at the facts. The pool tested positive for it…just like you suspected! OTHERS have posted here with skin, eye and other things they got after being in the pool around the same time period. Don’t get me wrong…I love the hotsprings and have enjoyed many great times there…but people are just not doing their jobs correctly anymore, nor being respectful to someone like you that is doing it FOR THEM AND OTHERS!
I really want to thank you for your story, your hard work even up against all odds I am sure( cause these so called powers that be…always want to claim you are a mental case so as not to have to take responsibilty for their actions or lack of action). I wish you the utmost success in healing in every way(and you should at least be covered for your medical expenses–isn’t there an atty with some huevos to take this on? -so as to protect any further issues the pool could have in the future if their hands aren’t even slapped into paying for this womans medical expenses!
Although I am not vocal about my spiritual beliefs normally,…I do believe in a higher power that will take care of you in the future for helping save others. Note to others: Those of you that criticize this woman’s efforts to heal and help warn others is certainly not to shut the pool down or frighten tourists away….it is about caring for us all and making sure it and her community is SAFE! At least she will be able to look in the mirror for having done something for us all…and what do you see in the mirror?
bhufnagle,
Regardless of the gotcha tone of your comment it’s a fair question. I go to the pool because I’m a member and have been for more than 18 years. In spite of the denials in the paper this morning (http://www.postindependent.com/news/14825699-113/hot-springs-pool-says-bacteria-well-within-limits) I do believe the pool has cleaned up the place, which definitely needed to be done. The last time I was there, a woman was wiping out all the lockers with disinfectant. What a good idea! That’s the kind of thorough cleanliness the public should expect.
I remain steadfast my opinion that the therapy pool was contaminated by an outside source and I hope the management will be more vigilant now and in the future.
For over 100 years the Hot Springs pool has advertised their healing waters. I also believe that’s true. But they aren’t healing waters if they make people sick. Indeed they invite sick people to come to the pool and enjoy the healing waters, therefore they have a responsibility to all their guests, even those with weakened immune systems.
At this point I realize there are some people who are just reading the comments because they’ve already read the post. So I posted this update at the end of the post and here:
**Update 1/29/15: I received a phone call from the claims rep at Secura Insurance (on behalf of the Hot Springs pool). She said they have collected most of my medical records and are still waiting for more.
Well, let’s hope you’re not contagious and spreading the bacteria you have into the pool for others. That would certainly be a bummer.
Wow! I’m blown away by the rude “shoot the messenger” comments. Thank you for letting us all know. I wish you much health and happiness!
Sorry to hear of your gastrointestinal trauma. I would like to recommend you go to a website/ Facebook the silver guy He can set you up with a colloidal silver generator and some pure silver wire. It can knock out any one celled microorganisms causing you difficulty. I have used the home generator to make distilled water into colloidal silver water for over twenty years. At least if you have your own source of colloidal silver water to ingest when you encounter contaminants in the hot springs you can enjoy the therapeutic benefits again.
lol wow……..this…is…fascinating. Typical of society these days, it’s always someone else’s fault….
was this in the hot pool or the big pool?
The hot therapy pool only (pictured above)
Have you contacted the Mayor of Glenwood Springs? To let them know of your situation. It’s their job to take care of the people of Glenwood Springs. There is always someone higher up, Why not shoot for the stars, After all its your health that is at risk right now, Very important in my book, I’d go to the very top. I’d also seek to speak to an advocate at the hospital you went to, They should help you or point you in the right direction & see if you can contact the health department and The Ombudsman of Glenwood Springs. Best luck to you.