THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, October 27, 1996 TAG: 9610250212
SECTION: VIRGINIA BEACH BEACON PAGE: 04 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY DAWSON MILLS, CORRESPONDENT
LENGTH: 81 lines
When the Navy brought Ann and William Jacobs, high school sweethearts from Marine City, Mich., to Virginia Beach six months ago, the couple realized another of their dreams. They bought their first home.
But it was Ann Jacobs' cautious ways that kept the dream from turning into a nightmare Oct. 11, while her husband was out to sea. The temperature had dropped in their neat ranch style home near Pembroke Mall and she turned on the furnace to keep herself and their 2-year-old daughter, Nicole, warm.
``I turned it on just to get the chill out of the house,'' Jacobs recalled. ``It ran about five minutes, and then it kicked on again Saturday morning. I had a headache, but not the usual kind. It was a throbbing headache. I felt tired, really tired, and Nicole was a little more sleepy than usual.''
Jacobs, 25, said she always has been cautious. When she gets in her car she buckles herself in after making sure Nicole is safely secured. Since the birth of their daughter, while stationed in New York, she and her husband have had a fire extinguisher in the house, two smoke alarms, and a carbon monoxide (CO) detector with an audible alarm.
``The CO detector had gone off,'' she explained, ``but I thought it was the battery, because it was old. So I went to Wal-Mart to purchase one with a digital readout.''
Returning home, she plugged in the detector. After only a few minutes, it read 200. An average reading, Jacobs said, is 30.
``I took my daughter and two dogs outside,'' Jacobs continued, ``and called the customer service number that came with the detector. They told me to get out and call 911.
``The paramedics were here in minutes. They gave me oxygen and took us to Sentara Bayside Hospital, to the emergency room. There, they took blood samples and put us on oxygen. When we returned to the house, Virginia Natural Gas had red-tagged the furnace. A fireman met us and told me we couldn't use it. He told me if it was cold out and I had let the furnace run, we wouldn't have awakened.''
The furnace, Jacobs learned, had been switched before they bought the house. The one put in had been installed incorrectly and was venting directly into the house. Jacobs contacted a heating contractor to make repairs.
Carbon monoxide, an odorless, colorless gas produced by combustion, injures and kills by interfering with the ability of the blood to carry oxygen.Symptoms include dizziness, fatigue, headaches, nausea, vomiting and confusion. At low levels, CO symptoms mimic the flu. At higher levels, the confusion and drowsiness it induces can prevent victims from taking steps to save themselves.
According to figures from the Mayo Clinic, cited by Cathy Prudhomme of Nighthawk Systems, a Colorado-based manufacturer of CO detectors, CO exposure results in 200 deaths in the United States annually. The Journal of the American Medical Association, Prudhomme cited, puts the figure at 1,500 annually. Both the clinic and the journal give the number injured by CO exposure each year as 10,000.
``We get calls all the time,'' Prudhomme said. ``It is the No. 1 killer involved in poison deaths in the U.S. Vitas Gerulaitis, the tennis star, was killed by carbon monoxide two years ago.''
Jacobs' experience was typical, according to statistics showing that 41 percent of CO poisonings occur as a result of furnace malfunctions, generally with the arrival of cooler weather. Another 20 percent occur because of exposure to auto exhaust.
A plug-in detector with digital readout, Jacobs said, costs about $45. Different brands are available at local stores for much less.
But only about 8 percent of U.S. households have CO detectors, Prudhomme said.
``I contacted my husband, at sea, through the American Red Cross,'' Jacobs said. ``I said, `We're OK,' and told him not to worry. He was terrified at first. He was really shaken up.
``He said, `Thank God you went out and got that detector,' '' Jacobs recalled. ``The paramedic said it, too: `You just saved you and your daughter's life.' '' ILLUSTRATION: Photo by DAWSON MILLS
Ann Jacobs, 25, and her 2-year-old daughter, Nicole, were saved when
her carbon monoxide detector sounded an audible alarm. Thinking it
was a bad battery, she purchased another CO detector with a digital
readout, which confirmed the presence of the gas. She then called
911. by CNB