A New Hampshire luxury resort’s hot tub is being implicated in two separate cases of Legionnaires’ Disease that were contracted last fall.
On December 29, the New Hampshire Division of Public Health Services announced that it was investigating the potential source(s) of the exposure after two out-of-state residents were diagnosed with the disease after their separate stays at Mountain View Grand Resort & Spa in Whitefield.
One woman died, and the other guest was hospitalized.
The deceased victim, 71-year-old Barbara Kruschwitz from Massachusetts, died of Legionnaires’ on October 10. Her husband, Henry Kruschwitz, said she swam in the resort’s pool and also used the hot tub, which he did not.
The condition of the other guest, who is from Rhode Island, was not reported.
Kruschwitz said it was hard to fathom how a second person could have gotten sick. “That's unacceptable,” he said. “You don't want to see anybody else go through what I went through.'
Dr. Benjamin Chan, state epidemiologist for the Department of Health and Human Services, said the two victims were at the resort at different times — in fact during different months — and stayed in different rooms.
“Both of them were older adults, and both of them were hospitalized for their infection, which oftentimes is the case with Legionnaires' Disease,” he said.
In a statement posted to Facebook, the hotel stated: “Mountain View Grand Resort & Spa is fiercely committed to the wellbeing of all those who walk through the door. The state confirmed they cannot be certain where these individuals contracted their infection, and we are working closely with the New Hampshire Division of Public Health Services and New Hampshire Department of Environmental Services to determine if the two individuals were affected as a result of visiting the property in fall of 2023. We are continuing to follow our stringent and consistent protocols to ensure the utmost health and safety of our guests and employees while we await test results recently conducted to confirm the potential source.”
Legionella, the bacteria responsible for Legionnaires’ Disease, can be found in water and soil. The disease is commonly contracted by breathing contaminated aerosolized water from showers, misters, fountains, cooling towers, and hot tubs. Symptoms of the disease include those consistent with pneumonia.
