posted January 03, 2008 01:31 AM         

My next door neighbor was taken into the hospital one night by EMS. When we inquired what had happened her husband told us that she had been visiting her kids in Florida. On the day she left there she went swimming in the ocean. That night she got very sick and could not breathe.

Turned out that the doctors told her she had a severe asthma attack due to getting into red tide. She spent a couple of days in the hospital.

I have never heard of red tide before this although I imagine that those here at LL who live by the Oceans and Gulf of Mexico know about it. From what I have read it can cause breathing problems and illness in humans but mainly kills fish which get caught in it.

Does anyone here have any more information about red tide? Have you ever experienced any effects of it? From what I have read on it since hearing about red tide I understand that you can get sick and have difficulty breathing even if you are just on the beach during a red tide event. Is that true?

After hearing about it I would now be afraid to swim in the ocean. The pictures of it look very scary. From what I have read it is not always red but sometimes makes the water look a murky brown in color as in one of the pictures here. That first picture was taken of the Pacific Ocean somewhere in Calif. The last picture shows dead fish which got caught in red tide.

We do not have red tide in the Great Lakes but there have many things brought into the Great Lakes in the billage of ocean going ships. We had an epedemic of zebra mussels that were brought into the Great Lakes by ocean going vessels who released their billage into the Great Lakes. That killed most of our Lake perch which are now scarce in the Great Lakes.

posted January 03, 2008 09:41 AM         

Looks like I need to do some research.

I hope your friend is ok.

posted January 03, 2008 04:04 PM         

I don't know any of this either, very interested in learning more on this now mys-elf!!!

Yes, Mirandee, how is your neighbour doing now??? Hope she is feeling better.

posted January 03, 2008 10:18 PM         

I haven't seen either Cathy or Glen since she got back from the hospital, Star. But Butch talked to Glen on New Year's Day when they were clearing the drives out. Seems that Cathy is doing okay now. She does have a mild case of asthma and the red tide triggered a very severe attack. I read that it will do that to people who have asthma or upper respiratory problems.

It seems that if there is high levels of red tide you can get sick or be effected by it just breathing the air. Even if you aren't in the water with it.