(KRON) -- A Bay Area mom warned others about her daughter getting sick. She believes it's from bacteria found in the water at Stinson Beach last weekend.
One mom brought her kids to Stinson Beach to enjoy the water. Over a week later, her ten-month-old is still sick.
"We have been going to Stinson Beach since I was six years old. Forever. Always gone there. Never had an issue," said one Bay Area mom.
Mandy Carter brought her son there when he was a baby. On Friday, June 16, she brought her 10-month-old baby Blyss there for her first beach experience.
"Let her play in the sand she took a scoop full of sand. None of us could stop her fast enough. Didn't think anything of it. Got it out because sand is gross," Carter said.
Little did she know, the day before the Golden Gate National Recreation Area put out a notice on Twitter.
The Marin County Environmental Health Services put out an advisory about water from the central part of Stinson Beach testing positive for Enterococcus.
This bacteria could indicate there is fecal material in the water. The levels did not meet state standards for swimming as this bacteria can make people sick.
However, there was no signage posted anywhere along Stinson Beach notifying people about this bacteria. Families like the Carters spent the holiday weekend enjoying the water.
The day after the beach, Carter says her baby became ill.
"Saturday is when her diarrhea started and a fever. By Monday, when her fever reached 104 and she started vomiting I rushed her to the ER at Kaiser."
Hospital staff thought it was a stomach bug. When the fever didn't subside, Carter took her baby to the children's hospital where she tested positive for salmonella and a UTL.
According to the CDC, salmonella is spread to people through water or food contaminated with feces from an infected animal.
"It can kill babies too. Immunocompromised, luckily she's been healthy. But immunocompromised babies, it's not good," Carter said.
After eight days, Blyss is still sick, so Carter's family started looking online. That's when they came across a KRON4 article about the bacteria at Stinson Beach.
"I thought they would be better and actually warn us, but nothing. We would not have gone at all if we had known," Carter said.
KRON4 spoke with Arti Kundu, a project manager with the Marin County Environmental Health Services.
Kundu's department is in charge of monitoring 31 beaches that get tested from April through October on Mondays and Tuesdays.
"Send the samples to the lab for analysis. Look for three different kinds of bacteria. That are related to fecal material," she said.
Results take 24-48 hours and if a beach tests positive, they send out an advisory to dozens of agencies.
"Our job is to send them the results and advisory. These beach managers are responsible for posting the advisory signage letting people know," Kundu said.
Carter says that was not done and simply posting online is not enough.
"There should at least put warning signs saying enter at your own risks, these were the bacteria that were found here. At least warn people so we can make a decision if we want to expose our children or not," Carter said.
A week later, the county tested Stinson Beach again and it tested negative for the bacteria. Kundu says there could be an array of reasons for why this happened.
"Wildlife, or maybe kids playing pooped or accident happened. And that sample was picked up at that time. Hard to find out what happened."
But Kundu says she has never seen this happen at Stinson Beach before.
An organization called Heal the Bay conducts an annual beach report that includes advisories like this…
That doesn't take away Carter's experience. She's now stuck with hospital bills and a sick baby.
"I'm never going again. That day was not worth what we are dealing with," Carter said.
Carter plans to contact marin county to make sure warning signs are put up at the beach next time. The same bacteria was recently found at popular beaches on Oahu. Levels were six times over the limit.
from KRON4 https://ift.tt/SKI1yQD
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