Just published (2026), longtime Iowa high school coach Wes Bruns writes about how carbon monoxide exposure forever altered his life one Christmas night in 1992. Following incredible and unimaginable loss, he was faced with his own set of challenges to survive in the aftermath:
“At age twenty-five, I went to sleep in the basement of my mom and stepfather Jim’s home, and five days later, woke up to a life I didn’t recognize. Carbon monoxide – an invisible, silent killer – had taken the lives of Mom, Jim, and my two brothers, Al and Dennis. I survived, but not without scars – speech challenges, coordination problems, memory lapses, and a mind that suddenly felt foreign to me…(my) book isn’t about tragedy…It’s about what you can build on the other side…resilience, faith, and moving forward, no matter what…”
