A fateful dip: Girl still sick a year after swimming in popular pond

It was supposed to be a casual dip at a popular pond with friends. But a year on, Georgia is still suffering from that fateful swim.

Ali Beal says her daughter, Georgia, is still suffering ill effects after swimming in Napier's Pandora Pond a year ago. Picture: Paul Taylor

Georgia Beal has been battling chronic pain and illness for a year from what her family believes is a result of swimming in contaminated water in Napier’s Pandora Pond in New Zealand.

The 12-year-old’s health has never been the same since a school excursion to the popular swimming spot near the end of February 2018.

But after countless doctors’ visits and sick days off from school, no diagnosis has been settled on.

Her mother, Ali Beal, is demanding answers — “angry, tired and frustrated” at the situation.

The pond was shut to swimmers later on the afternoon Georgia had swum in the pond after a high bacterial reading of 475 enterococci (bacteria) per 100 millilitres of water — above the safe swimming limit of 280.

No other students reported suffering from the same, prolonged effects.

But Ali remains adamant the cause lies in the pond, which is now classified as a “moderate” risk to swimmers by the Hawke’s Bay Regional Council.

Ali first noticed something was wrong three days after Georgia’s swim.

“We then went into two months of chronic diarrhoea that never existed before,” Ali said.

Ali Beal says her daughter Georgia, 12, was left with abdominal migraines after the swim. Picture: Paul Taylor

Late last year, she emailed Napier City Council, Hawke’s Bay Regional Council and the Hawke’s Bay District Health Board calling for a comprehensive review into the contamination.

When she had a meeting in November, Ali said the first question she was asked was “do you accept that it is not the water’s fault?”

“I just don’t. The water is sick and my kid ingested it. Whether we are predisposed to irritable bowels … whatever is in that water exasperated whatever is happening inside her system,” Ali said.

In October, a paediatrician gave a partial diagnosis of abdominal migraines. The Beals are now in “limbo” waiting Georgia to have an endoscopy and a colonoscopy in March.

A third stool sample indicating Georgia’s digestive system was “greatly inflamed” was the catalyst.

“It is really frustrating. This isn’t what Georgia is like. She was energetic, fun and would try anything, but now she won’t because she is too tired, or she feels sick, and her confidence has taken a huge knock,” Ali said.

Ali wants a complete review of the testing protocol, procedures, alert systems and actions that are used to deal with contamination events. Furthermore, she wants the “sick” estuary to be cleaned up.

“For me, I need to see that those governing bodies are working together to fix and come up with solutions … regional council have been testing for 15 years and they haven’t done anything.”

“If we don’t fix this, more kids are going to get sick, and I don’t want another family to go through this.”

Pandora Pond was officially declared safe for swimming again in January this year.

A Hawke’s Bay Regional Council spokesman said it had been trialling a new monitoring system in Pandora Pond that had the potential to provide water quality results within 20 minutes, rather than the usual two-day wait.

“We are looking at how this would fit with the national guidelines that we must adhere to,” the spokesman said.

“We have been trialling it since mid-January and hope to know soon whether this system will work for Pandora Pond.”

The trial came about because a number of recent results showed high levels of faecal contaminants in the pond.

The trial hadn’t started as a direct result of Georgia’s illness, the spokesman said.

A Hawke’s Bay District Health Board spokeswoman said all patients who were referred to the gastroenterology team for further diagnostic services, such as colonoscopy and endoscopy, were prioritised based on urgency.

She said there was a wait time of four months, once people had been confirmed that they were on the waiting list, for the test they needed to have done.

“We understand this can be a very stressful time for people as they wait for their procedure. However, we would like to reassure (people) that our gastroenterology team works very hard and is constantly rejigging its waiting lists to accommodate everyone it can, but it must prioritise those patients that need the service most,” the spokeswoman said.

“If the patient’s condition has changed since her referral was sent to the service we encourage her to see her GP again and be urgently referred.”

Napier City Council infrastructure services director, Jon Kingsford, said the council was committed to spending $20.6m on stormwater improvements and $25.7m on wastewater improvements over 10 years through their long-term plan.

“We have several staff solely dedicated to improving water quality related to the estuary,” he said. “We’ve also carried out more monitoring than has ever been done.”

This article originally appeared on the New Zealand Herald and was reproduced with permission