I don't usually C&P, but a friend in Colorado just posted this and it has me in tears to think about how scary it all must have been and I just wanted to share the PSA to make sure you get the detectors!
http://community.thenest.com/cs/ks/forums/thread/7802489.aspx
ETA: Here's a copy of the post text since the link won't work!
Hey Girls,
Just
wanted to shout out that if you don't currently have a carbon monoxide
detector in your home PLEASE get one. After hearing about the family in
Aspen that died DH and I talked about getting one. Being the
procrastinators that we are, we didn't do it yet. When our furnace
broke yesterday we confirmed that we "definitely need one". Well...that
was TOO late.
Yesterday Ivy and I were home alone - like normal.
I put her down for a nap and about 45 minutes later I heard her
screaming. When I went upstairs to check on her she was still asleep
but appeared to be in pain and her eyes were open but rolling back in
her head. I thought I needed to call the nurse line because it didn't
seem like Ivy at all. By the time I left her room I was feeling VERY
ill. I stopped in the bathroom to get sick and woke up on the bathroom
floor after I had apparently passed out. I crawled to the bedroom
(still not making a connection that Ivy and I were both behaving oddly,
as I was clearly already "out of it") and tried dialing DH at work. It
took 3 tries before I got him and I could barely form a coherent
sentence. I told him I thought I passed out and asked if he could call
me back in 15 minutes to check on me. I also told him Ivy was behaving
oddly. He called back in 15 minutes and there was no answer.
DH
immediately left work (also not making a carbon monoxide connection -
he thought I just passed out). 5 minutes after leaving he remembered
that our neighbors (the girls who babysit Ivy) have a key to our house.
He called them and the highschool age girls were home. He asked them to
check on us and call him back. When they arrived at the house Ivy and I
were both unconscious. They took Ivy out of the house and called 911
from their home. I didn't come to until they were working on me in the
ambulance (very surreal experience). I spent a portion of the night in
a hyperbaric chamber and Ivy had to spend it with oxygen on (due to the
quick thinking of the girls in removing Ivy immediately from the home
she had less exposure than I did). Getting a 2 year old to breathe
oxygen from a mask is no picnic.
Anyway, we are both safe now,
due to a series of happy miracles - me waking up after originally
passing out and being able to call DH, him thinking to call the girls
next door, and them being home (this was the ONLY day this week they
would have been home at that time), we are safe and doing pretty well.
We are obviously shaken up as it is very clear that with even a little
more exposurea Ivy nd I easily could have been brain damaged or dead.
Poor DH had to pull into a cul-de-sac filled with firetrucks and
ambulances. He saw them carry his unconscious daughter and wife into an
ambulance and understandably is completely freaked out.
So...after
this VERY long story - PLEASE don't procrastinate like us. If you don't
have a carbon monoxide detector GET one NOW! I NEVER smelled gas. I
didn't even feel remotely bad until I stood up to check on Ivy. Within
minutes I was so sick I was almost incapacitated. It happens FAST!!
Learn from our mistake!
Hope you all have a Merry Christmas!
Brandi
Re: PSA: get a Carbon Monoxide detector!!
That link isn't working but I saw the post...they are both so lucky. I actually almost picked one of those up a few weeks ago but DH told me he wasn't sure we really needed one.
Hmmm
Wow, so scary. I'm glad they are ok.
Our ADT person told us we didn't need one since we don't have any gas lines or gas appliances in the house. Maybe I'll still consider it though.