Families sent to hospital after visiting Birds Hill Park

WINNIPEG (CityNews) – Numerous families and children that went swimming recently at Birds Hill park have ended up sick and some have ended up in hospital.

The families CityNews spoke to have similar stories and outcomes. They allegedly went swimming at Birds Hill Park and then became sick which included vomiting, fever, and diarrhea. Dr. Kevin Coombs, a professor of Medical Microbiology at the University of Manitoba says these symptoms are consistent with Norovirus which is also known as the cruise ship virus.

Jessica Galli and her family, along with another family went to Birds Hill Park beach on Monday of the August long weekend. What was supposed to be a day of enjoyment, quickly ended up being the opposite. Galli says her husband and daughter became extremely sick. But it was her nine-month-old son who got it the worst.

“He wouldn’t keep anything down. I had called Health Link and they said to try spoon feeding him but he wasn’t keeping that down so that’s when we ended up going to emergency,” explained Galli.

Bree Berchesky and her family went camping at Birds Hill over the weekend. She has six kids and all of them swam in the water at the park, but she is concerned about one of her daughters who has developed major swelling.

“Her eye is swollen shut. She can’t open her right eye at all. She says her eye is burning,” explained Berchesky. “Her whole right side of her face is swollen ten times the size of the other and it looks like she has hives and a rash. There are a bunch of bumps all over her face.”

As CityNews was speaking to Berchesky, she was on her way with her daughter to Winnipeg’s Children’s Hospital. Much of the same can be said for Lyndsay Goldstein and her family. They went to Birds Hill, swam, and then alleges, immediately after, that her son also became extremely ill.

“I ended up taking him to the hospital because I didn’t know what was going on. He was passing out, having a hard time staying awake. He did have a fever later that day and then vomiting. The doctors at the hospital mention that it was interesting that we were at Birds Hill Park because they had seen a bunch of children with similar symptoms,” explained Goldstein.

“If numerous people are experiencing a mixture of diarrhea, vomiting, fever and face swelling, that is unusual and it might be something, or if most of the people being afflicted are children, it could be one of those viruses that affects children and we just haven’t learned much about it yet. Not knowing what’s causing this, it’s hard to know what the best course of action is,” said Dr. Kevin Coombs, Professor of Medical Microbiology at the University of Manitoba.

A spokesperson from the Winnipeg Regional Health Authority cannot confirm at this time whether or not there has been a spike of patients in hospitals related to incidents at Birds Hill Park.

CityNews reached out to the province for comment, in which they responded with the following statement:

“The province regularly tests water at a number of beaches around the province. Testing from the lake at Birds Hill Provincial Park has found the cyanobacteria cell counts (algae bloom) were elevated.

“If there were significant health concerns the signage would be different and the beach could be closed. At this time, that step has not been taken.”

“It’s a big concern Birds Hill isn’t shutting down at this point,” said Berschesky.

“Be cautious. I had a number of people tell me that they were planning to go to Birds Hill, saw my post and then changed their plans,” said Goldstein.

“It seems to be an issue with the water, and they should be doing something,” said Galli.