Antwerp Teenager Rescued From Poisoning

The 19 year old girl entered a bathroom in her family home, but did not come back out again.  It seems that after a few minutes she began to feel dizzy and subsequently lost consciousness and collapsed onto the floor. When the girl did not reappear, family members alerted Hatzolah and the fire department.  The firefighters forced their way into the bathroom to discover the young woman, who had been lying unconscious for about 15 minutes and was then in a life-threatening condition. She was immediately transported to a local hospital where she was treated in a special oxygen tent and released the following day. The doctors described the teenager has “having cheated death at the last moment.”

The fire department detected a very high level of carbon monoxide in the home, which was caused by the boiler not having been regularly inspected and serviced.  They evacuated the entire building due to the risk and potential immediate danger to the residents of the building.

Unfortunately, although this story had a happy ending, there have been other cases of carbon monoxide poisoning which have concluded tragically.

This article appeared in print on page 8 of the February 5th, 2014 edition of Hamodia.