Miya Spangler, who turns 1 year old Friday, is one of the 237 Alamosa residents sickened this past week by salmonella poisoning.
Her illness is one of 72 lab-confirmed cases.
“Last Tuesday she woke up after midnight crying. She had a really high fever and bad diarrhea,” said Miya’s mother, 20-year-old Amanda Spangler.
“I had a really bad feeling about it,” she said.
She took her daughter to the doctor the day officials realized they were in the grip of a salmonella outbreak caused by contaminated city drinking water.
“I felt terrible because I gave her the bottle, the formula, that made her sick,” Amanda said. “For two days she had no expression on her face. She just lay there.”
Miya’s father, Joey, said that for part of her week-long illness his daughter was either asleep or crying.
The water was bad, so her parents couldn’t bathe her to bring down her temperature, which her mother said topped out at 105.9 degrees.
The baby had a terrible rash. She threw up. She had blood in her stool, her mother said.
“She wanted to be held all the time,” Amanda said.
By Tuesday, after several days of antibiotics, Miya was hard at play and ready to party like a 1-year-old.
Electa Draper: 303-954-1276 or edraper@denverpost.com
