MOUNT VERNON — Bladensburg resident Mary Jo Devine clearly remembers the details of the cold winter morning about nine years ago when she and her two children woke up poisoned by carbon monoxide.
“It was a Monday morning and I was up getting ready for work,” she said. “I woke up with a headache.”
Mary Jo’s husband, Derek, was at work while Mary Jo went about the routine of getting her son and daughter up and ready for school.
When her 10-year-old daughter fainted in the shower, Devine said she knew something was wrong.
“I tried to wake up my son and he was really sleepy,” she said. “I wanted to take my daughter to the hospital because she had fainted.”
Devine called her husband at work to tell him about their daughter’s fainting. After discussing his family’s symptoms with a co-worker, who was a Utica volunteer firefighter, Derek called his wife back and told her to get the family out of the house and call the fire department. He feared CO poisoning.
“I wasn’t really thinking clearly,” Mary Jo said. “It took 15 to 20 more minutes just to get out of the house because my thinking process was affected greatly. I got everyone out of the house and called the squad, but my son was extremely lethargic.”
Firefighters measured the CO levels in the house and found them to be over 300 parts per million in some areas of the house. Anything over 9 parts per million is considered too high.
The family was transported to the hospital and treated for CO poisoning. Family members all recovered, but Devine said she soon discovered what a close call her family experienced.
Her children usually went out to meet the school bus each morning about 30 minutes after Devine left for work.
“If I would have left, the kids would not have made it out of the house,” she said.
The symptoms of CO poisoning can closely mimic the flu, according to Katy Breeze, R.N., education coordinator of the emergency department at Knox Community Hospital. Breeze said a headache is the most common early sign of CO poisoning. Victims can also suffer from nausea and vomiting, dizziness, fatigue, confusion and chest pain.
“You can progress then to a staggering gait, irrational thinking and seizures,” Breeze explained.
Warnings about carbon monoxide
Information from the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission.
Coma and death can result when the levels of carbon monoxide in the blood become too high. Breeze said death from CO poisoning is usually a result of heart arrythmias or acute respiratory distress.
Carbon monoxide, sometimes called the “invisible killer,” is odorless, colorless and tasteless. It is also very deadly. According to the Center for Disease Control, over 400 people are killed in this country each year by unintentional, non-fire related exposure to carbon monoxide.
These deaths happen in homes, when the occupants are unknowingly exposed to carbon monoxide, which is produced by fuel-burning appliances and vehicles. If a furnace, heater or generator is not used and maintained properly, the carbon monoxide fumes can quickly build up in an unventilated space.
CO can overcome its victims in a matter of minutes or hours, depending on the CO levels in the air. Mount Vernon Fire Chief Shawn Christy said every home should be equipped with at least one carbon monoxide detector to warn occupants when CO levels become elevated and dangerous. Without a detector, people exposed to carbon monoxide may not realize they’ve been exposed until they become ill.
Devine said her family was exposed when a nest blocked the vent leading from her home’s furnace to the outside. Because the basement was sealed airtight to keep cold air out, the CO fumes built up in the basement and escaped into the upper two floors of the house.
A carbon monoxide detector would have given the family warning about the presence of CO before family members became so ill. Christy said that unlike smoke detectors, which work best when they are positioned high in a room, CO detectors should be placed on walls near the floor, close to vents if possible.
The Consumer Product Safety Commission recommends a CO detector be placed near a family’s sleeping area. Christy said an additional one is also useful near the furnace, in a utility room.
As the weather turns colder, furnaces and space heaters are used more often. Fire departments respond to more calls about CO detectors that are registering high levels. Christy said CO checks are requested of his department almost daily during the winter months.
He said vehicles left running in garages while they warm up can feed carbon monoxide into the home, and explained that preventive measures are the key to avoiding CO poisoning in the home.
“Properly maintenanced appliances, such as the ones that use natural gas, are important,” Christy said.
Licensed repair people should check heating systems once a year.
“Fireplaces need to be cleaned and serviced annually,” the chief added. “People who do use kerosene heaters need to be extra cautious and follow manufacturer’s directions.”
Breeze said KCH sees an average of 15 to 20 carbon monoxide poisonings each year, usually during the winter months. She said entire families become ill at the same time and require treatment, because it is not the size of the person which determines the level of poisoning, but the length of exposure.
She said most cases are treated with high-flow oxygen and monitoring by hospital staff, to make sure the CO levels in the blood become lower. The most severe cases are transported to Columbus.
“Usually we send them to the hyperbaric chamber at the Ohio State University Medical Center,” Breeze said. “If the paramedics think the [level of CO poisoning] is really high, they’ll fly them from the scene.”
She stressed the importance of getting out of a house which may contain CO as soon as symptoms present.
“If people are having headaches and they’re stumbling around, and the kids are grouchy and can’t be calmed down; get out of the house,” she said. “Call 9-1-1 and have the fire department do a CO level check and get to the emergency room.”
“If you’re waking up with headaches, don’t just chalk it up to stress,” Devine said. “Get it checked out.”
Breeze said most patients do well after treatment.
Devine said she learned the importance of having a CO detector after her family’s close call.
“You need to have a CO detector on your main floor with a battery back-up,” she said.
“We’re always very aware now,” she said. “It is scary and it happens quickly. I think about it this time of year. I would have lost my children that day.”
