A Story To Pass Down

One story about me that I hope will be passed down is very scary story that can add a bit of knowledge to every day life.  It occurred December 28^th, 2005 at our house.  My parents were returning from an excited week spent with my aunt and cousin in Paris, France.  We were expecting very cold conditions on our way home.  The moment we walked into our house and put our bags away, my dad turned on the heat to warm up the room.  We all went about our regular day just relaxing, waiting to get back on a regular scheduled time.

            While I played video games in my dad’s room he was checking the Internet, while my mom laid on the couch and watched TV.  About thirty minutes later my mom told us that he head was hurting and was going to lay down for a nap.  Eventually my dad and I were developing the same head pain but continued with what we were doing.  I then found myself feeling light-headed and dizzy and I was losing focus on what was going on in my game and I kept dying.  I felt like the room was spinning all around me.  As I told this to my dad, he turned off the game and told me to lie down.

            It was hard to stand up and climb the stairs to my room, so I had to crawl up the stairs.  When I reached the top I tried to get to my feet to walking to my bed and lay down.  I had never had a headache this bad in my life, but I figured having a nap would help.  It was hard to get to sleep because the pain was excruciating.  I eventually faded into a deep sleep.

            I awoke to find my dad shaking me awake to get up.  I’d never seen my dad so shaken up before and I got up and walked with to the stairs.  As I got to the staircase I looked down to see a paramedic and a firefighter at the bottom of the stairs.  I still felt dizzy and was become disoriented.  As my dad helped me down the stairs my eyes rolled to the back of my head and I fell down the stairs when my dad let go of me to talk to the paramedic outside.  The paramedic took me to the ambulance parked outside of our house.  My mother got in the ambulance and was doing her best to give my info to the paramedics as she was crying watching me lying on back in pain.  We all were rushed to the hospital.

            I was rushed into a room and was put on an oxygen machine.  My parents entered the room and were hooked up to oxygen machines as well.  I looked around the room, still confused and disoriented, but I just kept looking at my parents and became very upset at my surroundings. 

            The doctor walked in and explained to us that we were here because our house had high levels of carbon monoxide.  Our house had an old furnace that we turned off when we left for our trip. While we were gone, the furnace must have gotten messed up and caused a leak of carbon monoxide.  The doctor said that if my mom called 911 later than she did, we would all be dead.  Hearing these words sent a direct message to my brain and I began to panic in the hospital room and the nurses tried to calm me down.  I had never heard of carbon monoxide and was terrified if we stayed in there longer.  Needless to say we were alive and after some long hours at the hospital, we were free to go.  We stayed in a hotel room down from our house for a few days till the house was cleared out of gas.  Since then we have a new furnace and a carbon monoxide monitor.

            I hope that this story is passed down to my descendants because carbon monoxide is an issue that some homeowners are not aware of.  For us, we had an old house and never in a million years thought that it would happen.  We’ve told this story to our friends, family, and co-workers and they have looked into preventing carbon monoxide leaks at their own homes. I hope that people take this story seriously and understand that carbon monoxide is a scentless gas that can’t be seen and the importance of understanding it can help save lives. Everything mentioned before is 100