Paradise family narrowly escapes CO poisoning

By Jon Cox

February 15, 2005 | PARADISE -- Had their 4-year-old daughter had not been sick that night, a family of four may have never woken up.

Carbon monoxide poisoning nearly claimed the lives of Paradise Fire Chief Troy Fredrickson and his family the night of Jan. 24. Troy and Diane Fredrickson brought their sick daughter, Sadie, 4, into their bedroom that night only to have her awake at 10 p.m. to vomit. Afterward, the couple went back to sleep.

Later at around 1 a.m. the couple once again awoke to their vomiting daughter. This time both had severe headaches.

"It's like somebody's beating your head with a sledgehammer," Diane said.

The couple tried to go back to sleep but with the headaches and Sadie's continued vomiting, they were unable to do so. At around 1:45 a.m. Troy went upstairs to get pain medication, and dizzily made his way to the kitchen sink. The next thing he remembers, he was lying at the bottom of the front door. He managed to regain consciousness and exit the home.

Diane later brought Sadie up the stairs and out of the house.

"You're so extremely dizzy that you can hardly walk," Diane said. Troy saw Diane with Sadie as they came to the door.

"They weren't walking either. She was crawling," Troy said. Diane would also wake Tyrell, 9, but the family still does not know how he exited the home.

The incident occurred as a result of a cracked firewall in the Fredrickson's fireplace. The ventilation system did not properly work and the carbon monoxide fumes slowly entered the home. The couple did not have a carbon monoxide detector in the home at the time of the incident. They had been living in the home for more than 5 years.

"We always intended on getting one, but it just kind of slips your mind," Diane said. "It's a good wake-up call for folks."

"I bet you 90 percent of people don't have a detector," Troy said.

The couple spent that morning in the hospital receiving oxygen treatments for more than the next five hours. According to Troy, the family was almost shipped to Ogden to receive treatment in a chamber similar to those used to revive deep sea divers suffering from decompression complications.

Many who are under the influence of carbon monoxide poisoning do not recognize its effects.

"There is no smell, no taste, no nothing," Diane said.

The poisoning can also alter the decision-making process.

"I'm not thinking get my family out of the house. I am thinking I want to lie down and go to sleep," Diane said. "You can't make rational choices."

A periodic check is recommended on furnaces and fireplaces within the home to prevent carbon monoxide poisoning. According to experts, carbon monoxide is the most common accidental poisoning in the United States.

NW
DN