Close Call Watch 2008

So... if you don't have a carbon monoxide detector, get one now. Even if you just had the furnace checked out. Even if you live in a new house. My grandmother Rose and her sister Lil nearly tipped the statistical scales last Wednesday when the furnace in Lil's home (to which Rose had fled after an electrical fire in the basement made her own home temporarily unlivable) malfunctioned and pumped carbon monoxide into the house. They were flown to Salt Lake City from the clinic in their small Wyoming town, where they were lucky to have been correctly diagnosed with carbon monoxide poisoning.

By the time we got down to visit them Thursday night they had each been in a hyperbaric chamber a few times and were doing very well, joking, alert and comfortable, although tired and shaken. If a friend hadn't called and managed to wake Lil, another hour of exposure would have taken them past the point where they could be revived. Scary stuff, kids. We're so glad they're still with us. Everybody else, get thee to a hardware store if you don't already have a CO monitor!