A silent killer

Early in the morning last Sunday a family of three were brought into the hospital. All were found comatose in their home by the daughter's friend. Both the daughter and her mother worked there. I knew the mother, but had never seen the daughter before. When I arrived at work on Sunday morning, at 11 am, the mother was already in the ICU, the daughter and husband were still in the ER. The mother spent 8 hours in the hyperbaric chambers, it did not help at all. The family was poisoned by carbon monoxide. A hospital is like a small town, and even if you don't know someone by name a description will usually have you saying "Oh sure, I know her. Lovely girl." And, like in small towns, rumours fly.

We heard that all three had been in the ER on Friday night complaining of headaches, and that they were all sent home. It turns out that only the mother was, and was there for 6 hours. All the talk at the hospital right now is about this family, and specifically the mother, who had been working there for some 15 years. It would be impossible to say a bad word about her, she truly was a lovely a person. She always used to say hello to me and ask about my kids. This was before I even knew her name, but like I said the hospital's a small town and my mother has worked there for so long that people I don't know seem to know an awful lot about me.

She died on Wednesday night, the mother did. 5 minutes after they pulled the plug. The husband was transferred out of ICU and up on to Medicine, he is expected to fully recover. The daughter is in ICU, she is on life support but apparently has shown some improvement. I am not sure what sort of improvement there is to be had when you are on life support, but I suppose it does happen. I wonder about the quality of life if she survives. It is all terribly, terribly sad.


* Just looked at the date and realized that Saoirse was due one year ago today.