Another reporter gets CO educated

John R. Hall

Two elderly men were found dead in their home in my town this week. Preliminary news reports said there was no sign of forced entry or violence. So I immediately started thinking of CO poisoning.

I was out of town but kept in touch with a local newspaper reporter who broke the story. I asked him to check with police to see if during the autopsies a blood test was taken to determine levels of CO in the blood. He checked and supposedly the men were both ailing, one taking care of the other bedridden brother, and both died of heart attacks within hours of each other. There was a working CO detector and levels were safe.

I know this was likely a case of one not being able to live without the other (the caregiver died first) but I still have some suspicions. The full autopsy report won't be out for a few weeks. If anything, the reporter has a new awareness of how CO is so often overlooked as a cause or contributor to death, both in the short term and long term.

He asked me what my expertise was in the matter and I said I am merely a trade magazine reporter interested in educating people on CO. I have a lot of friends to thank for that, namely Mark Hunt, Jim Davis, Tim McElwain, Rudy Leatherman, and Bill Spohn. When these guys talk, people SHOULD listen.

Thanks guys -- and keep up the fight.

Joe Grosso

Keep us posted

Most people tend to think of CO poisoning as a winter phenomenon. But there are always the stove and water heater....