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These are the sweet faces of the Boughter family: Yvonne and Patrick and their daughters Kelly and Morgan. On this weekend 14 years ago, they checked into a hotel in Ocean City, Maryland. After spending a day enjoying rides on the Boardwalk, they were looking forward to relaxing in their room and watching a movie together…a fun start to what was to be a week-long vacation. But within just a few hours, the four of them would be incapacitated in their hotel room, unable to escape the effects of an undetected toxic carbon monoxide (CO) leak.
Looking back, Yvonne says, there were signs something was wrong: one of the girls threw up not long after they got into the room and Yvonne developed a severe headache. But at the time, a long day of amusement rides and restaurant food seemed like logical reasons for feeling ill. Settling down to watch a movie, they all began to feel noticeably drowsy, so much so they weren’t able to stay awake to finish it.
A CO alarm in the hotel room would have alerted them to the fact they were not suffering from the after effects of a long day or bad food, they were being poisoned by the air in their room. CO detection in the hotel would have alerted the staff to the life-threatening situation that was quickly developing (due to a dislodged water heater ventilation pipe) and the need to immediately evacuate the building. But there were no alerts to anyone because there was no CO detection of any kind anywhere in the hotel.
The Boughters turned off the movie, crawled into bed, and fell deeper into the effects of the CO: drifting in and out of consciousness, suffering uncontrollable bouts of vomiting throughout the night and into the next morning.
Yvonne doesn’t have a clear memory of all that happened that night (CO poisoning causes confusion and hallucinations). She does remember being roused into consciousness at the sound of Patrick’s labored breathing and her daughter crying out for help. She managed to reach the phone and call 911 before losing consciousness again. An ambulance was dispatched.
Around the same time, in two rooms down the hall from the Boughters, another family was also unknowingly suffering the effects of CO poisoning, violently ill with nausea and vomiting. They had called for an ambulance suspecting they might be suffering from food poisoning. In total, three ambulances responded to the hotel to render aid to victims in three different rooms, but they mistakenly missed the Boughter’s room. The response focused only on the other victims who were subsequently transported to the hospital where they were misdiagnosed with food poisoning, treated, and released.
Meanwhile back at the hotel, the Boughters continued to lay helpless in their room, unconscious and still inhaling the CO that no one had yet identified. Four hours after her initial call, Yvonne came to and again called 911. Dispatchers quickly sent another ambulance to the hotel. But by the time they arrived, Patrick was dead along with 10-year-old Kelly. Yvonne and Morgan were rushed to the hospital where they were diagnosed with severe CO poisoning. The other victims were contacted and instructed to return to the hospital to be treated for CO poisoning as well.
Our hearts go out to Yvonne and Morgan, survivors of an “accident” that should have never happened; their lives forever changed by unimaginable loss, trauma, and injury that could have easily been prevented.
CO poisoning incidents in hotels are not rare. Since Patrick and Kelly’s deaths in 2006, at least 18 more people have died of CO poisoning in U.S. hotels – 5 of them children. Despite ongoing tragic outcomes such as these, CO detection is still not required in most hotels in the U.S.
Protect your family by carrying a CO alarm when you travel. If you hear it alerting to CO, immediately get outside to fresh air and call 911. Along with saving your family, your actions may save the lives of others as well.
For more information on CO poisoning in hotels and how to stay safe while traveling visit https://thejenkinsfoundation.com/hotel-co-incidents/
