Carbon Monoxide and the Blue Angels

We were in Roche this last weekend enjoying a visit by friends from Spokane; they trailer their boat over for a couple weeks in the San Juans. Sunday morning, we were all going to go into Friday Harbor to drop our car in the ferry line for the 1:00 and walk around town for the morning. Our friends, with their 10-year-old daughter were anchored in the harbor and meeting us at 10:00. At 9:45, the dad called to say they weren’t going to make it. He had started the engine to charge the battery while they got ready, then the daughter came up and her eyes rolled back and she went into a seizure. Eyes rolled back, open but unconscious and shaking… 30 seconds later, his wife did the same. Carbon Monoxide.

-         He threw off the canvas and both had come around but with bad headaches and very lethargic.

-         Told him to pull anchor and start in while I got him a slip assignment.

-         Even though they were doing better, we wanted them checked out, so drove into Friday’s emergency clinic.

-         EMT showed up to find these two and a woman with chest pains who just dropped by… within 15 minutes there were about 10 doctors, EMTs and volunteer staff.

-         Angie noticed that the dad wasn’t quite himself and told the Doc to check him out also… he too had elevated CO levels.

-         Got them on oxygen and stable, then they wanted them on the mainland for blood gas checks and the ability to get to Seattle and Virginia Mason’s hyperbaric chamber if necessary (the lead doctor didn’t think it would get to that).

-         Anacortes wasn’t set up for the tests, Bellingham was jammed, Boeing Field was closed for the Seafair air show and besides, the airlift helicopters were an hour backlogged, at least. We talked Paine field, then an ambulance to Seattle, etc.

-         The doctor called VM and their hyperbaric doctor. Once he heard “seizure”, he wanted all three there ASAP.

-         They did get the Cessna 206 air ambulance to take all three, but where?

-         VM guy called back with clearance into Boeing Field. The flight was taken down below traffic at 500 feet from Edmonds in.

-         Once off the runway, onto the taxiway, the 4 lead Blue Angels took off, then the 2 solos. They had held until the air ambulance landed.

-         Ambulance to VM and about 2+ hours with oxygen at the equivalent of 66 feet deep.

-         Thanks to high gas prices resulting in fewer visitors, we got the 1:00 ferry even showing up at 12:15. 

-         We got home and unloaded everything, then went to VM to see what was up. When I asked for them at the desk, they walked around the corner, having been discharged.

 

So, we had house guests last night… all are doing fine.

 

I’m offering this so more can learn from our shot across the bow: CHECK YOUR CURRENT, OR BUY A CARBON MONOXIDE DETECTOR!

 

All the best,

 

Tom Johnson