Children left vomiting, noses bleeding in 'freak accident' at public pool
Close to 50 people, mostly children, have been left coughing, vomiting and bleeding from their noses in a terrifying incident at a public pool.
A pump malfunction at the pool in the US state of Utah forced too much chlorine out of a jet, resulting in more than 20 hospitalisations, Pleasant Grove Police Captain Britt Smith said.
Police described the chlorine gas leak as a ‘freak accident’.
The chlorine caused people to cough, vomit and bleed from their noses he said.
Martha Vickers said she grabbed her children and ran when the gas enveloped them.
“I just turned around and saw some bubbling from the pool — some yellow bubbling — and I knew it wasn’t good,” Ms Vickers told local media KSL-TV.
Ms Vickers saw people coughing and gagging as they left the pool.
Her two-year-old nephew was among those being treated, she said.
Patients who inhaled the gas could have chronic respiratory issues, according to Dr Nathan Miller, who assessed some of the patients.
“The more serious patients have some wheezing and then even more serious that their oxygen numbers drop and they require oxygen, then require breathing treatments,” Mr Miller said.
“Essentially, it would be like a severe asthma attack where they could potentially suffocate.”
Doctors at a one hospital treated 15 children and one adult, with three admitted to its paediatric intensive care unit, officials said.
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