Our law firm is representing a person who stayed at the Golden Sands Club and was then diagnosed with Legionnaires’ disease.
Two cases of Legionnaires’ disease have been linked to the Golden Sands Club Condominium in Ocean City, MD. The people sickened stayed there in October of 2015. Our Legionnaires’ disease lawyers are representing someone sickened in this outbreak.
Today, Worcester County health officials confirmed that the potentially deadly Legionella pneumonia bacteria has been isolated in the water supply at the Golden Sands Club Condominium, a 360-unit luxury complex on 10900 Coastal Highway. In a statement released by Debra Stevens, Head of Nursing at Worcester County Health Department (WCHD), to OC Today, the two victims were guests at the resort in October. Others who stayed at the Golden Sands during October have been notified of the possibility that they may have been exposed to the Legionella bacteria.
The incubation period of Legionnaires’ disease is 2 to 14 days. Typically the illness presents as mild headache, fatigue, and muscle aches, followed by severe pneumonia symptoms including a high fever (103°F), a cough, diarrhea, and chest pain / shortness of breath. Confusion and hallucinations can also occur.
If you were in residence at the Golden Sands in October and have been experiencing these symptoms, it is essential that you seek medical attention immediately. Legionnaires’ disease is treatable with early detection, but requires different antibiotics that those used for pneumonia (with which it is sometimes confused by diagnosticians). Those who are particularly susceptible to infection include middle-aged / elderly people (over 50), smokers, and individuals with cancer, chronic lung diseases, diabetes, and weak immune systems; the fatality rate for this population is approximately 15%.
Read This If You Have Contracted Legionnaires’ Disease at a Resort
Legionnaires’ disease is a frequent visitor, unfortunately, to Ocean City area resorts, and has triggered multiple multimillion-dollar lawsuits. Two guests at the local Econo Lodge on 145th Street contracted the disease in summer 2014; earlier, in 2012, two vacationers at the Sea Watch Condominiums were diagnosed with LD.
The most serious Ocean City outbreak, however, occurred in the summer of 2011, when six guests contracted legionellosis at the Plim Plaza Hotel on the Boardwalk. One victim, an elderly woman from Pennsylvania, later died.
This prompted multiple lawsuits against the hotel.
Victim Pat Dent accrued hospital expenses of over $200,000 during a six-week hospital stay during which he experienced renal failure, respiratory failure, and septic shock. He subsequently filed a lawsuit (Dent et al v. Plim Plaza Hotel, Inc. et al) in federal court against the hotel and its ownership group, Harrison Group, seeking $5 million in compensatory damages and $1 million for loss of consortium (damages suffered by the spouse of a victim).
A parallel civil suit was filed by an additional 11 plaintiffs in Worcester County Circuit Court, including the survivors of the elderly woman who died. Each plaintiff sought $1 million for negligence and breach of contract.
All of these lawsuits were ultimately resolved, for undisclosed settlements, prior to trial.