FRENCH LEGIONNAIRES BUT NOT IN AFRICA
While traveling in Europe we often stayed overnight at town’s I had never heard of. One of these was a middle sized town called St. Die, France. Our hotel was on a street of shops across from the medieval Cathedral. This was the only hotel we stayed where the desk clerk did not show us the room before we registered. I think we were so overjoyed the room was on the main level—no lugging suitcases up flights of stairs—that we booked sight unseen. When we opened the door to the hotel room we were greeted by an unpleasant musty smell. I think we were tired and thought what the heck. After opening two large French windows it aired out nicely.
One day later we both had a nasty cough. My sinuses were clogged. I didn’t feel like I had a cold but definitely had something. We blamed it on the room. Perhaps some funky mold problem. It took over a month to recover. I would wake up at night with spasms of coughing. I sounded like Felix Unger in the Odd Couple clearing out my sinuses in the am. Poor Jon. He was not as rude. Since we had acquired this nasty bug in France, we began to refer to it as our French Legionnaires Disease. If you are not familiar with Legionnaires disease, it is spread through contaminated ductwork. The name comes from an original outbreak of this at a Philadelphia hotel that was hosting an American Legion convention about thirty years ago. I have seen a patient with this and it is deadly. We did not think we really had this but I think if you feel lousy you might as well have something noteworthy to talk about. Maybe it was the name of the hotel and town—St. Die that struck us. We were going to die from the bug from St. Die. Actually it is not pronounced like you would say it in English. It is “San Dee-ae”. I actually learned this from a waiter in a French café who looked like La Beau from Hogan’s Heroes. He didn’t speak English. I didn’t speak French but we managed pretty well.
After coughing and hacking and snorting our way across a couple more countries we ended up in Venice. At the entrance to the bridge over to the island of Venice we saw a billboard advertising the Holiday Inn in Venice. Who would think it. It fleetingly crossed our minds that we would get an American breakfast and English speakers at this place but we never found the hotel. Anyway that is like eating at McDonalds while abroad. The next day I was sitting in a piazza drinking a cup of coffee when Jon returned with a newspaper in Italian. By this time I had become quite bold in interpreting all foreign languages. The headline said something like “Emergenzia Legionella a Holiday Inn”. Of course I told Jon they had Legionnaires disease here too. He did not believe me. This morning I remembered and googled it. Yup, they did have an outbreak of Legionnaires disease at this Venetian hotel. The web site of the world health organization was warning people who may have stayed to seek medical help to contact their doctor. Maybe I should talk to the WHO about St. Die and every place we stayed after that!
While traveling in Europe we often stayed overnight at town’s I had never heard of. One of these was a middle sized town called St. Die, France. Our hotel was on a street of shops across from the medieval Cathedral. This was the only hotel we stayed where the desk clerk did not show us the room before we registered. I think we were so overjoyed the room was on the main level—no lugging suitcases up flights of stairs—that we booked sight unseen. When we opened the door to the hotel room we were greeted by an unpleasant musty smell. I think we were tired and thought what the heck. After opening two large French windows it aired out nicely.
One day later we both had a nasty cough. My sinuses were clogged. I didn’t feel like I had a cold but definitely had something. We blamed it on the room. Perhaps some funky mold problem. It took over a month to recover. I would wake up at night with spasms of coughing. I sounded like Felix Unger in the Odd Couple clearing out my sinuses in the am. Poor Jon. He was not as rude. Since we had acquired this nasty bug in France, we began to refer to it as our French Legionnaires Disease. If you are not familiar with Legionnaires disease, it is spread through contaminated ductwork. The name comes from an original outbreak of this at a Philadelphia hotel that was hosting an American Legion convention about thirty years ago. I have seen a patient with this and it is deadly. We did not think we really had this but I think if you feel lousy you might as well have something noteworthy to talk about. Maybe it was the name of the hotel and town—St. Die that struck us. We were going to die from the bug from St. Die. Actually it is not pronounced like you would say it in English. It is “San Dee-ae”. I actually learned this from a waiter in a French café who looked like La Beau from Hogan’s Heroes. He didn’t speak English. I didn’t speak French but we managed pretty well.
After coughing and hacking and snorting our way across a couple more countries we ended up in Venice. At the entrance to the bridge over to the island of Venice we saw a billboard advertising the Holiday Inn in Venice. Who would think it. It fleetingly crossed our minds that we would get an American breakfast and English speakers at this place but we never found the hotel. Anyway that is like eating at McDonalds while abroad. The next day I was sitting in a piazza drinking a cup of coffee when Jon returned with a newspaper in Italian. By this time I had become quite bold in interpreting all foreign languages. The headline said something like “Emergenzia Legionella a Holiday Inn”. Of course I told Jon they had Legionnaires disease here too. He did not believe me. This morning I remembered and googled it. Yup, they did have an outbreak of Legionnaires disease at this Venetian hotel. The web site of the world health organization was warning people who may have stayed to seek medical help to contact their doctor. Maybe I should talk to the WHO about St. Die and every place we stayed after that!
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