By Bruno Matarazzo Jr.
Staff writer
March 03, 2008 05:58 am MIDDLETON — A New Hampshire mother says a group of children who spent the day at CoCo Key Water Park ended up in the hospital with chemical burns caused by the chlorine, a claim the owners of the new attraction deny. The children spent two days and one night at the Sheraton Ferncroft Resort in Danvers with a group of friends on a Girl Scout trip. Kristen Baker of Litchfield, N.H., which is about 10 miles north of Nashua, did not accompany her children but said she was horrified to see them when they returned Friday night. "When she walked in the door she — oh my God — she was bright red like a really bad sunburn," Baker said. Her 11-year-old daughter, Emily, had burns more severe than her 9-year-old brother, Austin, but both had burns so bad it hurt to have clothes on, she said. Baker claimed the hotel had dangerous levels of chlorine in pools and spas at CoCo Key. The hotel denied the levels were unsafe. CoCo Key opened less than a year ago and has four enclosed water slides, an adventure river, an interactive play structure with water cannons and a dump bucket, and 190,000 gallons of water disinfected by chlorine. The water park, typically open only to hotel guests or holders of a limited number of special passes, is on the Middleton side of the Sheraton Ferncroft's property. Baker said she immediately put her two kids in an oatmeal bath and tried a cold shower at the suggestion of CoCo Key staff, whom she called Friday night. Soon afterward, her daughter developed a cough and her son started sneezing. Ninety minutes after her kids returned home, their doctor suggested taking them to the hospital. Emergency room doctors at Southern New Hampshire Medical Center in Nashua diagnosed Emily Baker with chemical burns, her mother said. In an e-mail yesterday the hotel denied the chlorine levels were unduly high, though they acknowledged that children who attend the facility should be careful. "Our water quality audits do show chlorine levels within the levels suggested by the Department of Public Health," the statement reads. "When our chlorine levels are at the higher end of the range suggested by the DPH, children that spend an extended period of time in a spa are more likely to have this type of reaction." Hotel management apologized to guests and said as a precaution it drained the spa and rebalanced the chlorine levels. Baker said one of the other parents who accompanied the 14 children to the water park said kids were having breathing problems and were vomiting. "My son was upset because there were babies having a hard time breathing," she said. Baker said she contacted the hotel Friday night and Saturday. She was told by the hotel manager that chlorine levels were fine. Baker said she decided to talk to the media in order to let others know about the dangers of chlorine exposure. "You want kids to be safe, you want them to have a safe experience. I want to prevent them from having a fatality," she said.
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