Repeat Carbon Monoxide Exposure in Richmond Apartment

A mother and her young son are afraid to stay in their apartment due to repeated carbon monoxide exposures, according to ABC News. The incident took place in Henrico County, VA. The apartments, called Treehouse Apartments, are refusing her request to move into another apartment.

On August 7th, 2016 the repeated carbon monoxide exposures were identified when the carbon monoxide detector went off in a Northside Richmond apartment. The mother, Latrice Garrison, has visited the hospital multiple times for this problem.

“I’m really fearful for my life and his,” she told ABC News.

She has been to the hospital four times in two weeks, and still does not know what the source of the carbon monoxide leak is.

Once she was released from the hospital, the detector went off again.

The problems with repeated carbon monoxide exposures continued. On August 11th, firefighters detected dangerously high levels of carbon monoxide at 156 ppm near the oven in the apartment. But the oven had been replaced two days earlier after a prior scare, so the oven was not the source of the leak. They shut off the gas supply to the new oven, and ventilated the apartment.

Garrison experienced confusion and headaches along with other symptoms as a result of the repeated carbon monoxide exposures.

Health risks associated with carbon monoxide include brain damage, cardiovascular diseases, stroke, Parkinson’s disease, the list goes on. It’s also associated with higher risk of premature mortality usually due to psychiatric reasons.

According to medical documents, she was rushed to the hospital, where she stayed for three nights.

Even after the most recent exposure, Garrison says that the apartments’ management still refuses to relocate her. Scared for her and her son’s lives, she has asked multiple times to be moved to another unit on site. The source of the carbon monoxide leak is still unclear.

“Me and my baby, we’ve got to go back to this house and I’m not sleeping because of it. I’m stressed out,” she told ABC News.

The apartments’ property manager still has refused to explain the situation to ABC News.