Lakewood Family hospitalized from CO: We’re thankful to be alive

The Lakewood family hospitalized with elevated levels of CO, says they’re thankful to be alive.Today, they shared their story with TLS:

It’s 2:55 am, and I’m writing to you from Kimball hospital emergency room.
Me and my family are thankful to be alive. We had a very big nes.

At around 11:45 tonight, we were awoken to the smoke detector ringing and announcing “carbon monoxide”. Initially, I was going to ignore it, shut it off and go back to sleep. I climbed up to try to shut off the detector and noticed a small sticker that said “you cannot smell or see carbon monoxide. If your carbon monoxide detector rings call the fire department immediately.”

I still was hesitant, so I called Chaveirim but they said that they can’t take responsibility and I should call the FD.

We woke all the kids and took them into the car and called 911.

A few minutes later, Hatzola and the firemen arrived. Two firemen walked into my house and immediately told us to stand back as there is a very high level of CM in my house. 30 is considered dangerous and their meters read 120!!

Hatzola advised us to take everyone to the hospital to get checked out. We came here and they took blood from each of us. All of our blood was high with gas! We were all put on oxygen and that’s where we are now at 2:55 am.

I think I can easily say that if not for the רבש״ע watching us from above… who knows…It would have been a very sad story

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8 COMMENTS

  1. B”h everyone is safe and sound. L’toeles I’m just wondering if you found out what the source of the elevated carbon monoxide levels were from so that we can all be more aware and careful. Thanks!

  2. This is why it is always important to call 911 without delay even on Shabbos. Since CO has no oder or taste you have no idea if it’s a faulty detector or an actual emergency. In this case the family was lucky. Had they ignore it we would most likely be burying an entire family today.

    • Absolutely correct. My son, his wife and their 5 year old twins would not have made it. They were put in the hospital and given oxygen. His CO alarm was going off, and he thought it was the batteries, so he ignored it. There was an odor. They had a faulty gas heater. He did call 911 in the morning. Again that saved their lives. Please, please, call 911 if you suspect anything. Better safe than sorry.

  3. It turns out the high levels of CO resulted from the home’s heating system being turned on for the first time of the season last night. (Posted by TLS on 11/01 at 2:08)

  4. To all reading this,
    Please spread the word.

    Never hesitate to call the Fire Department! Too many people have told me that they hesitate to “bother” us because it might be “nothing”. There is no such thing as a “nothing” call. What may seem to be nothing can in fact be deadly. Chaveirim is to be commended for not taking that responsibility and directing the caller to the Fire Department. We are there for the public and no one should ever be concerned with “bothering” us when it comes to the safety of you and your family.

    On another note, as the writer says, never ignore an alarm! Don’t be lulled into false complacency and assume it’s nothing. Always find out why your smoke alarm and/or carbon monoxide detector is sounding. Rather wake your entire family, even in middle of the night if you have to, than ignore the alarm and have to deal with potentially deadly results. How deadly would this story have turned out had the writer decided to ignore the alarm? Don’t let this happen to you.

    Jacob Woolf
    Fire Prevention Coordinator

Comments are closed.