We are at my father-in-law’s house in Wyoming at the moment. On Wednesday morning, ambulances and emergency vehicles started arriving down the street. An EMT soon came to our driveway and said to one of our family members, “We have a lot of sick people. Can we use your garage for triage?” She of course said yes. “There’s been carbon monoxide poisoning,” he said, and returned to the scene.
Nothing happened for a while. We saw lots of vehicles arrive but didn’t see any ambulances leave with patients. Maybe it was a false alarm, we thought. We hypothesized what could have happened, how many affected people there could be. It was a brand new house, only occupied for a month or two. I’d seen a heating and cooling truck on the street an hour before; could that be related?
The emergency workers came back. “We need space to have them come inside and warm up,” one said. We readied the house, clearing space on couches, chairs, made sure we had mugs for warm drinks. Then we waited.
Eventually they started a slow and dazed parade the few hundred yards from their house to ours; one of the first was a young girl with blonde hair who looked stunned. She had snow-covered outerwear on. I asked her if I could help her take it off and if she was scared. She nodded. I reassured her that she was safe, everything was going to be okay. In the way that children do, she bounced back quickly, playing with a puzzle within minutes and laughing.
The grandparents, however, sat on one of the couches with oxygen masks on. They looked confused and pale. Each family member had a color coded tag with their carbon monoxide level on it. Fourteen family members had been in that house. The owners of the house had a few of their children and some grandchildren there for the after-Christmas break. They’d arrived to cold temperatures and cranked up their new heating system, all propane-generated. The heat didn’t seem to be working right. It cycled on and off quickly, wasn’t generating enough warmth for the large house. They’d used the secondary heat source– radiant heat in portions of the house (also propane-generated).
By Tuesday night some of the people in the house were vomiting, complaining of bad headaches. Of course, at high altitude headaches are common, especially after first arriving in town. Symptoms were dismissed as common illness, aftermaths from travel. The next morning, however, by the time the heating repairman was due to arrive, some family members were lethargic, having trouble getting out of bed in the morning.
The repairman arrived at the address expecting a commonplace heating issue. The second he stepped inside the house, however, the carbon monoxide detector on his belt loop began chirping. “You’ve got a carbon monoxide issue,” he told them, “get everyone out of the house NOW and call 911.”
The pieces fell into place… the headaches, vomiting, lethargy. Those in bedrooms closest to the boiler room were more severely affected. Usually infants, pregnant women, those with respiratory trouble, and the elderly can be more severely affected. And so, the fourteen family members and dog left the house that had been slowly poisoning them with toxic air.
Carbon monoxide binds with the hemoglobin in the blood more quickly than oxygen, making the hemoglobin unable to carry the oxygen the body needs. Without oxygen, of course, tissues start to die and eventually death will occur. Breathing pure oxygen after exposure takes the half life of carbon monoxide from 320 minutes to 80 minutes. The CO will be replaced with the oxygen it needs and poisoning will stop.
The medical team kept re-testing everyone using an oxygen saturation monitor (inserting a finger into a clothespin-shaped device, also known as a pulse-ox, or pulse oximeter). As the minutes and hours went by, their numbers came down. Some of them had gone straight to the hospital, others would later go to be double-checked after questionable readings or because of their age. At the hospital, blood tests are also used to check the percentage of hemoglobin that is CO.
Smokers will have a higher baseline percent than non-smokers because they have carbon monoxide in their blood as a side effect of smoking.1 The triage team had a tag for each person, recording each person’s current measurement. The cards looks like large luggage tags and had red, yellow, and green stripes indicating danger and safety zones. Those with higher levels would have to go to the hospital for monitoring. We kept the dog here while they went, still stunned at the turn of events.
They told the owner he wouldn’t be allowed back in the house. The repairman had his own level checked, and hypothesized about the cause of the problem — improper installation or blocked venting, most likely. “You won’t be able to go back in,” he told the owner. “We don’t want to,” the owner said through his oxygen mask.
I sat across from the owner. “Did the monitors malfunction, too?” I asked, curious how this brand new house could have been the location of such a dangerous situation. “The house doesn’t have carbon monoxide detectors,” he said, shaking his head. “The whole house runs on propane.” No one had told him he should have the detectors.
And so, that is the lesson I wish to share here today. Read about carbon monoxide. Educate yourselves about what conditions in your house can cause the toxic gas (the list of causes is more extensive than what I knew). Get carbon monoxide detectors installed, either by doing it yourself or in combination with your alarm system.2 Newer, self-intalled ones have batteries that last up to 7 years and units cost between $20 and $80 each. Placing them near your bedrooms is best.
Some people mistakenly believe that because they have smoke detectors they are protected from CO poisoning. This is not the case. The detectors are separate and detect different things. You need both.
Carbon monoxide gas is particularly pernicious because, unlike smoke, it’s not detectable by sight or smell. You won’t know it’s there. It can make you drowsy enough to go to sleep and never wake up.
Different states have different statutes about the installation of detectors in new dwellings. For now, it’s not national law. This means it’s up to you to protect your family. Each year reminders go out during daylight savings to check the batteries in your smoke detectors. Please allow me to use this space to ask you to go buy belated holiday gifts for your family: carbon monoxide detectors. It could be the best thing you ever do.
The family across the street was lucky: everyone will recover. There is still danger of long-term health effects from the exposure, but they are all alive, including their pet. They were lucky. But each year 400 Americans die, 20,000 visit emergency rooms, and more than 4,000 are hospitalized from carbon monoxide poisoning.
Please don’t be one of them.
** A few days after I posted this piece we saw the homeowner. He reported that the family was able to return to the house after the cause was identified and a temporary solution had been made. They discovered that the heating vents were blocked by extensive snow (2 feet) on the roof and chimney. The heating company has made a temporary pipe system to shunt the vapors outside. Also, they’ve installed eight CO detectors throughout the house. Given the extensive snowfall this year in the Northeast, it’s important to see how extreme weather can pose unforeseen dangers.
- Interestingly, I learned taxi drivers have a very high level of carbon monoxide in their blood from constant inhalation of exhaust fumes [↩]
- ours is wired into our alarm system so that if we were not home or had already fallen victim to poisoning, the alarm would send the alert to the police station [↩]
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Yikes. Good reminder to go check the batteries on our various detectors….
These folks sure were lucky. It is hard to believe that people do not know that they need CM detectors with any kind of gas! We never had gas in a house until ten years ago (and then it was two houses at the same time) and I do not think anyone told us….we just knew.
Our friends had a similar experience caused by a malfunctioning pool heater that was located next to their home. CO was leaking into the house. Six family members ended up at the hospital. Two in hyperbolic chamber. Firefighters stated that usually everyone is dead when they respond to a call about CO leaks in a home. Pool repair man was appalled that the heater was placed next to the home. He said they were prone to problems and should always be a far from the home as possible.
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Well written, Lisa. A very similar situation happened to us in 2004. We woke to all alarms sounding and showing VERY high levels of CO on 3 floors of our home. We have NO gas in our home. Ok, one propane gas fireplace on the main floor, that was not lit at the time. That’s it. No other gas. Firefighters were baffled as to the source. Responders included various fire companies, HAZMAT, Township supervisors, EPA…I watched from the neighbors house with my 1 year old baby on my lap, as all of those people tracked in and out of my house (also imagining all the dirt they tracked in!)
People need to know there are natural sources of CO as well. The lot in front of ours was under construction and they had recently been blasting the ground. We knew this could cause a shift in the natural pockets of CO and had to educate the firefighters. They had never heard of it. It happened in my last neighborhood (but not to me), which is how I knew. The natural pockets of CO shift and need to find a new place to go…our basement.
I wish the fire companies and news would encourage people to get these dectectors. We are always reminded to test and buy smoke detectors. How hard would it be to add CO to that reminder??
Ironically, the day you informed us of this horrible accident, my own CO detector was beeping when I woke. Fortunately, it seems to be a malfunctioning unit. There was a very very low reading in the basement though, so I am watching it closely. I went out and bought 2 new CO’s yesterday and plan to replace others. They need to be replaced about every 5 years or the sensors are no longer as accurate. I don’t mind spending this money one bit. They saved our lives.
[…] learn more about carbon monoxide, Lisa Adams (@AdamsLisa) has written an informative piece about another family’s experience with carbon monoxide, and she provides lots of valuable […]
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