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CO Scare: Sharon Woman
Peggy Willis of Sharon figures she owes her life to a white plastic box that has little buttons and blinking dots and goes "Beeep, beeep, beeep." The box is a wall-mounted carbon monoxide detector that had been installed in Joseph and Peggy Willis’ Carpenter Road home by Interfaith Caregivers about a month ago, around the time Peggy had knee replacement surgery. The carbon monoxide detector, several smoke alarms, and a few grab bars were installed in the Willis home through Caregivers’ "Home, Safe Home" service. The Randolph-based non-profit is dedicated to keeping seniors safe in their homes and provides these and other services at no cost to anyone 60 and older in an 18-town area. The little box in the Willis home had been a quiet thing for weeks, until the early morning hours of last Wednesday, Nov. 21. The beeping is "loud enough to wake you up," Willis noted, and it roused her and her husband at about 2 a.m. They thought it must be a battery problem, and after replacing the battery, went back to sleep. An hour later, though, the device went off again. They evacuated the house. However, an emergency search of their double-wide indicated the gas furnace was firing just fine, and the alarm stopped beeping, so they went back to bed again. The next day, her husband went off to work, and the still-convalescing Peggy stayed home. She was tired, very tired, but it was not a good day to rest, it turned out. The carbon monoxide monitor started beeping again—this time more persistently—and all three of the little lights on the device were blinking away. Even so, Willis might still have discounted the alarm, and credited her tiredness to convalescence, if it weren’t for the odd thing that had happened, over a few days, to her houseplants. She has lots of them. They were dying—"shriveling up," Willis related. "One Christmas cactus was all in bloom—the blooms all fell off," she said. "Something’s wrong in the house," Willis said to herself. Peggy Willis decided to call her neighbor, and ex-mother-in-law, Joyce Dyer. By this time, Willis said, "I was so weak and tired I barely made it to the table. If I’d have gone and laid down, instead of calling her, I probably wouldn’t be here today." Joyce Dyer brought her own carbon monoxide monitor, a more sophisticated model that gives read-outs of CO levels. It showed an alarmingly high level of CO in the house—67%, Willis, said. The women shut off the furnace, and opened the windows and doors. It didn’t take long for the beeping to stop, the three little lights to stop blinking, and for Peggy Willis to start feeling perkier. "The next day, after it happened, I never felt so good in my life," Willis said. She called Interfaith Caregivers to give her profound thanks for their life-saving device. She confessed that she and her husband had initially thought the CO alarm was defective. It has been determined that the Willises’ gas furnace was malfunctioning, and a new one is on the way. In the meantime, the Willises are heating with a freestanding gas unit. CO levels in the house probably varied over those few days, depending on how frequently the defective furnace was firing. "The husband went to work each day—he was out of it—but I was here breathing it," Willis said. Caregivers Can Help Sandy Singer, director of Interfaith Caregivers called The Herald late last Wednesday, shortly after receiving Peggy Willis’s call. "Peggy’s story is very powerful," she said. "Oftentimes, as volunteers or donors, we don’t get to see the distant shores our efforts touch. This holiday season, the Willis family will share the gift of life, made possible by a CO detector." Singer said she hoped the story would encourage all to install monitors, and would motivate those eligible for Interfaith Caregivers to call to arrange a home-safety evaluation. In the last year, Singer said, volunteers from the non-profit have installed one CO detector and up to three smoke detectors into each of about 75 Central Vermont homes. The Interfaith Caregivers number is 728-2347. CO Facts The following information was excerpted from a release from Vermont Emergency Management: Carbon monoxide is an odorless, colorless, and toxic gas. CO gas can come from gas-fired appliances, charcoal grills, wood-burning furnaces, stoves, or fireplaces; gas generators; and motor vehicles. At lower levels of exposure, CO causes mild effects that are often mistaken for the flu. These symptoms include headaches, dizziness, disorientation, nausea, and fatigue. The effects of CO exposure can vary greatly from person to person, depending on age, overall health, and the concentration and length of exposure. Because it is impossible to see, taste, or smell the toxic fumes, CO can kill you before you are aware it is in your home. The release goes on to recommend the installation of at least one UL- (Underwriters Laboratories) listed CO alarm near sleeping areas and outside bedrooms. The alarms measure CO levels over time, and are designed to sound an alarm before an average, health adult would experience symptoms. |
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