A likely explanation for the mention of "Denver": Although many TB sufferers moved to Colorado (and elsewhere in the American Southwest) in the late 19th Century, there were no facilities for them in Denver.
"By the 1890's ... In Denver, victims of tuberculosis were literally dying in the streets as boarding houses often banned 'lungers', as they were called."
Opening late in 1899, the "National Jewish Hospital for Treatment of Consumptives" ("consumption" is an old, alternate name for "tuberculosis") provided health care for sufferers of TB. After multiple name changes (now "National Jewish Health"), it remains one of the premier hospitals for pulmonary care in the country.
By '27, I suspect that this sanitarium would have been well-known nationwide as the place to go if you got TB.
I know this 'cause I used to work and live just around the corner from it at University of Colorado Health Sciences Center on Colorado Boulevard.
BB,
NightWing