Ontario man claims he contracted staph infection at luxury spa

An aerial view of Thermea Spa Village in Whitby, Ont. (Thermëa spa village Whitby/Facebook)

An Oshawa man is claiming he contracted an antibiotic-resistant staph infection (MRSA) from Thermea Spa in Whitby, Ont, months after an outbreak was reported at one of the facility's saltwater pools.

Owned by Groupe Nordik, a health and wellness company headquartered in Chelsea, Que., Thermea is the subject of an ongoing $5 million lawsuit regarding staph infections allegedly obtained at the spa last fall. The lawsuit, headed by Toronto personal injury lawyer Justin Linden, has amassed 114 claimants, up from 72 in November. Allegations outlined in the lawsuit have not yet been tested in court.

Haider Samad, who lives in Oshawa, attended Thermea on March 17 to celebrate his birthday. Days later, an oozing sore appeared on his leg, causing Samad “a great deal” of pain, he said. In the days following his discovery of the infection, a doctor confirmed the lesion was caused by MRSA, confirmed in documents seen by CP24.

“My knee was the size of a baseball,” Samad told CP24. “By March 20, it was bleeding a lot, and the pain wouldn’t go away.”

Several medical appointments later, Samad had the official MRSA diagnosis, and was put on a five-day, at-home IV treatment for the injury.

“It was really, really painful,” he said. “I was bedridden. I couldn’t move. And that was the first day of Ramadan, the holiest day of the year, and I couldn’t fast…this was the scare of my life.”

While Samad’s injuries have lessened in the weeks since his initial treatment for the injury, he feels it’s important to get the word out about what happened to him.

“It could have been fatal,” he said. “I feel like they’re not taking this seriously. This is people’s health…I don’t want any more people to be in pain.”

Durham Public Health told CP24 there was no record of this infection on file. The most recent inspection available online shows a passing mark from a re-inspection in March.

In a statement to CP24, Groupe Nordik said they have tried to reach Samad's representation “to gather more details” about his situation but have not heard back. Samad is being represented by Linden as part of the ongoing lawsuit but did not separately make the spa aware of his infection. The source of the infection remains unknown.

“Since closing our pools in October, we have implemented enhanced safety protocols, including a laboratory grade incubator which allows for rapid testing onsite,” the statement from Groupe Nordik notes.

“Since implementing the incubator, we have completed over 100 bacterial tests across all of our pools and all tests have come back negative for bacteria.”

Results of an internal audit, published on Nov. 2 as part of Thermëa Spa's "commitment to transparency," claims there were three contributing factors that led to the contamination in the fall, including a broken valve in the pool’s bromine erosion system and a malfunction with the pool’s ultraviolet disinfectant system.

“In our 20 years of operation, we have never had an incident like this in any of our pools, and it is our intention to never have an incident like this again,” the spa wrote at the time.

Nordik said that they intend to “fully participate” in the ongoing litigation process.