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WINONA LAKE - When Andrea Lambert woke up with a sore throat a couple of days last week, her mother, Tracy, didn't think too much about it. Her child went off to school, feeling better as the day progressed.
Tracy was more concerned about her husband, Patrick, who had been having trouble breathing. His condition had become so bad he was diagnosed as having pleurisy in Kosciusko Community Hospital's emergency room.
Little did Tracy know her husband and daughter were being poisoned.
The antagonist in this story was an improperly ventilated water heater, which also had a cracked heating element. The device was flooding the Lamberts' Sharon Street home with carbon monoxide.
Tracy credits Mike Kehoe, an Elliott's Heating and Air Conditioning salesman, with saving the family's lives.
"He took one look at the ventilation system, which pointed down, not up, and asked me if anyone in the house had been sick," Tracy said. Kehoe was there because Patrick wanted quotes on duct work. Kehoe immediately returned to the office on Zimmer Road, bringing back a carbon monoxide meter. When it revealed levels of 35 parts per million - considered unhealthy - he advised Tracy to call NIPSCO.
"We hadn't turned on the furnace yet; if we had, the carbon monoxide level could have been deadly. I cannot thank Elliott's and Mike Kehoe enough," Tracy said.
The family spent the night in a hotel.
"Everytime I read a story about people being poisoned with carbon monoxide, I wondered why those people didn't have detectors. I thought they were stupid," she said.
Tracy, daughter of Jerry Johnson, a former Warsaw Police chief, is very aware of safety precautions and had installed CO (carbon monoxide) monitors. Her basement had two KIDDE carbon monoxide detectors.
"I changed the batteries on the monitor. I pushed in the tester button and it beeps. It beeps when its operational. The green light is flashing. You think they work," she said.
The Winona Lake Fire Department responded to the family's call Oct. 2 and their monitor wasn't charged, so the Warsaw Fire Department was called in. The Warsaw FD found unhealthy levels of CO - 200 parts per million. NIPSCO was called, as standard procedure, to shut everything down.
"We offer the CO monitoring service for free," said Warsaw Fire Chief Matt Warren. "It's part of our job." The WPD responds to about 20 calls per year, generally during winter when houses are closed up and the colorless and mostly odorless gas begins to collect. Fewer than 5 percent of the checks have an unhealthy level reading.
CO monitors are not like smoke detectors. When a smoke detector detects smoke, it sounds an alarm. The CO monitor works a lot like the human body. The CO builds and builds and builds in the system and goes off when it reaches a certain level.
"When an alarm goes off, the first thing Dispatch does is ask if anyone has symptoms, like headache or nausea. Pinch your fingernails," the chief advised, revealing a health trick. "If you have a concentration of CO, the color will not return as quickly as normal. I advised Mrs. Lambert to open the house up and stay away for a few days. To let the body clean itself out."
He added that the CO monitors should be taken outside once a year to clean them out, too.
Warren said the problem with CO is that it can induce sleepiness. So the affected person goes to sleep and takes in even more of the gas. The body's red blood cells take CO more readily than oxygen.
Monday afternoon Elliott's installed a new furnace, and the work included a new ventilation system.
"I've been sick for the past five years," Tracy said, "and didn't know what was wrong with me. A doctor did diagnose me with a form of cancer. I'm wondering if this is not related. Carbon monoxide can be a slow forming poison.
"Animals get sick, too. I've been wiping the dog's nose for the last three weeks."
The entire family had a blood test for CO poisoning. Patrick's levels and Andrea's levels were the highest. Tracy and their son, Arron, had the lowest levels, although he woke up with a sore throat a couple of days last week, too.
Tracy has learned more about the infrastructure of her 1976-built house than she ever thought she would. "Wherever the vent comes from your furnace it has to go up," she said.
"We've had five other five heating companies over here and they never questioned why the ventilation system was pointing down. I'm just overwhelmed by it all. How lucky we are to be here and not sick in the hospital on oxygen. Or dead."
