Saskatoon family thanks hospital medical staff, EMS for saving their lives

When Jean Romero’s son began complaining of headaches Thursday, she told him to take a Tylenol.

Then when her daughter, who’s taking university classes online, also told her mom she wasn’t feeling well, Romero asked her to open a window.

She never thought for a second that her children might be suffering from carbon monoxide poisoning.

Romero, her husband and their two children live on the second floor of a Saskatoon apartment building in the Greystone Heights area that was the site of a carbon monoxide leak Thursday night.

Around noon, Romero came home from her overnight job and began making supper. She soon went to pick up her husband and both took a nap.

“My husband wasn’t feeling good, he was having shortness of breath or something. So we were laying down sleeping and all of a sudden the fire (department) came,” Romero recalled Friday.

Not long after, her children said they were told everyone had to immediately leave the building.

“There were some people who were very sick,” said Romero. “But the ambulance came right away and they were checking kids and everything.”

Medavie Ambulance director Troy Davies said paramedics were called to the building on Bateman Crescent just after 6 p.m. Saskatoon doctor Mark Wahba had seen a patient in one of the city’s emergency departments and suspected carbon monoxide poisoning.

Romero said by the time she and her family made their way to the hospital, they were all feeling ill.

“I was feeling lightheaded and dizzy. I didn’t feel good. I asked the nurse if I could get tested. We were all on oxygen for a while, until after midnight. Then (there was) bloodwork and everything,” she explained.

Romero shuddered when thinking of what could have happened.

“You cannot smell it. There’s just nothing,” she said. “I was supposed to work (Thursday) night. Can you imagine coming home and all your family is dead? I can’t imagine.

“I work nights. So what if it happened in the middle of the night or one o’clock in the morning? So that was scary.”

She’s thankful the incident happened earlier in the day and for the extensive response from emergency responders and hospital medical staff.

For now, she and her family are staying in a local hotel.

Romero said residents might not be allowed back into the building until next Wednesday.

According to Assistant Fire Chief Yvonne Raymer, the complex did not have working carbon monoxide detectors. Chief Morgan Hackl said building codes did not require them to be installed because of the age of the structure.

Hackl said Friday that venting issues in the boiler room of Romero’s building and one other nearby caused the sharp increase in CO levels. Repairs are now underway.

Lisa Collard, the Saskatchewan Health Authority’s director of emergency services, sent out a statement Friday afternoon also thanking emergency medical staff.

“We want to thank all of our staff and physicians at Saskatoon City Hospital and Royal University Hospital for their rapid response in dealing with a Code Orange (mass casualty) situation Thursday evening,” the statement said.

“Saskatoon City Hospital’s Emergency Department was kept open to provide care for 33 patients, including 16 pediatric patients and 17 adults, while four adults and six children were at Royal University Hospital/Jim Pattison Children’s Hospital Children’s Emergency with suspected carbon monoxide poisoning.”