MESA, Ariz. - A Mesa mom is searching for answers after she's convinced pool chemicals at a popular Rocky Point hotel sent her daughter to the hospital.
The family stayed at Las Palomas Beach and Golf Resort at Rocky Point over the Fourth of July weekend. They were planning a fun family getaway, but instead, her daughter ended up in the hospital room.
"To see your child in that kind of state, where she is completely incoherent and you can't even talk to her, that's horrifying," said Holly Goodyear.
Goodyear said her 3-year-old daughter, Kensington, was floating down the hotel's lazy river with her husband when he claims he saw something weird being pumped into the pool.
"He thought it was a pipe below. He saw some discoloration in the water. It looked like something was bubbling up from below. Shortly after is when they noticed the fumes," Goodyear said.
He described it as an "acid-like" smell and said it made him feel dizzy. Goodyear's husband was on a float while Kensington was swimming in the water.
"She was swimming in the water, so she was at chin level with the water. So, she really inhaled the majority of that, while he was up above it, and he almost passed out from the little bit he got," said Goodyear.
Goodyear said within minutes, her daughter went from laughing and playing to limp.
"She was passing out. She couldn't keep her eyes open. She was too weak to cry. She was drooling. Her nose was going. She was gurgling a little bit," Goodyear said.
Kensington was rushed to a clinic in San Jose. From there, doctors made the decision to rush her to Phoenix Children's Hospital, where Kensington started getting better.
But now, Goodyear wants answers about what happened to her daughter.
Las Palomas released this statement:
“Las Palomas Rocky Point was made aware of the incident immediately and took instant action for the safety of our guests and residents.
Security was notified and the Las Palomas on-site paramedics attended to the child until an ambulance from San Jose clinic could arrive.
Immediately after the incident, the lazy river was temporarily closed and the Sonoran state health department and the civil protection agency came on-site to check all of the pool facilities, specifically the lazy river chemical control systems.
The senior management team (all are fully bilingual) provided a list of the chemicals used in the pool to the family to share with doctors.
We reached out to the clinic to determine if any of the chemicals used in the pool were implicated.
Once we received the results that the chemical balance was within the regulated range, the pool was reopened.
Additionally, we reached out to the USA supplier of the lazy river chemical control systems to learn if there had been any reports of system malfunctions that could result in generation of toxic gas. They reported that the system is designed with robust safeguards and that no such incidents have ever been reported in Mexico or the USA.
Again, the safety and well-being of our guests and homeowners remains our top priority. Thousands of visitors have used the lazy river and we have had no additional reports of a yellow substance or toxic gases. We have reached out directly to the family to provide all of our findings to assist them and their doctors in determining the cause of the illness.
- Victor Zavala, General Manager Las Palomas Rocky Point HOA"
Goodyear said until she gets an apology and the hotel finds the cause of what made her daughter sick, she won't be satisfied.
"We could have lost our child...I felt like there was no apology there. They were just discrediting our story instead of looking into what potentially happened," Goodyear said. "You can test your pool water and it can be at perfect levels. If it needs a chemical: chlorine, acid, whatever it is, you can dump it in and make it perfect. But if you dump it in next to a 3-year-old child, she's going to react accordingly and it's going to be a toxic amount, and that's what happened."
She said she's afraid that if the hotel doesn't continue investigating, this may happen again.
"This could affect more people. If someone almost lost their life and you're not investigating further, that tells me you're not taking this seriously," Goodyear said.
As of right now, it's still not clear what caused Kensington's illness, but she is now doing much better.