Pool Heater to Blame for Niles Hotel Carbon Monoxide Poisoning
Once again, a pool heater has killed, this time in the Niles hotel carbon monoxide poisoning at the Quality Inn and Suites, Niles, Michigan. In 2013, the pool heater was the culprit the Best Western Hotel in Boone, North Carolina which resulted in fatalities, months apart. See our blog: https://carbonmonoxide.com/2013/06/carbon-monoxide-may-be-effecting-others-guest-at-boone-best-western.html
In Niles Hotel Carbon Monoxide poisoning, several people were found unconscious in the pool area. Early reports had 13 people hospitalized in addition to the fatality. Six of those hospitalized were children. Our hopes and prayers go out to those who are likely still being treated for this poisoning. To the families, we plead with you to demand complete treatment for your loved ones. This will not be a near miss. With levels as high as must have been the case here, this struggle will go on and the best care is imperative.
Attorney Gordon Johnson testifies to the U.S. Consumer Products Safety Commission about why alarms save lives. The warning signs are too non-specific for people to figure it out and if the levels are as high as they were in the Niles hotel carbon monoxide poisoning, people may pass out or become too confused to realize why multiple people are sick at once.
We are struggling with the same questions we have in too many of these carbon monoxide poisonings. Where was the carbon monoxide detector? Hotels in most states are required to have carbon monoxide detectors by now. But, did this hotel only have it in the furnace room? CO detectors must not only be where the fuel burning appliances are, but where the people are. Normally, the greatest risk is where people are sleeping, but with levels as high as they were in the Niles hotel carbon monoxide poisoning, even those not sleeping are at risk for drop where you are loss of consciousness.
Levels were reported to be 800 ppm, high enough that even rescue workers were at risk for serious poisoning. From what we know about the onset of symptoms from varying levels of carbon monoxide poisoning, the carboxyhemoglobin levels of those in the pool area at the Quality Inn and Suites, Niles, Michigan were likely in excess of 30%. Unconsciousness usually does not occur at levels below 30%. Death usually will not occur until levels get near 50%. Thus, everyone who was evacuated from the hotel should have been given hyperbaric oxygen therapy. While it is not a cure, it does significantly reduce the potential for delayed symptoms from the poisoning.
We anticipate significant disability in the survivors of this event, especially the children. We have significant experience in children who survive carbon monoxide poisoning. We currently represent more than 30 children in three separate mass carbon monoxide poisoning events. With children, especially those entering adolescence, the symptoms will not just be the cognitive problems we associate with brain damage. Cognitive problems include issues with memory, attention, concentration. But more significant in a pediatric survivor of carbon monoxide is the potential for mood and behavior changes. Physical and neurological problems are also virtually guaranteed in at least 40% of those who survive. See https://carbonmonoxide.com/dns-result-carbon-monoxide-poisoning
The Brain Injury Law Group has had a successful result in a prior hotel carbon monoxide poisoning. We represented the survivors of the Green Bay Days Inn Hotel carbon monoxide poisoning which occurred in May of 2009. The case was resolved in 2014. For more information about hotel carbon monoxide poisoning, see our page on carbon monoxide in hotels: https://carbonmonoxide.com/carbon-monoxide-in-hotels
The Niles hotel carbon monoxide poisoning is another in a string of such tragedies. Shown here is the Days Inn in Green Bay where victims nearly died in their sleep in 2009.
We are currently representing survivors of two school poisonings in Illinois and the survivors of a carbon monoxide event at a wedding in Madison, WI. All three involve children. The first school case was the North Mac Middle School in Girard, the second, the Prussing Elementary School in Chicago. We understand the how these events happen, who to blame and how seriously our clients may be impacted by these events. It is essential when considering a lawyer in a case like this, that your lawyer understand the chemistry of how carbon monoxide is created, the impact that carbon monoxide has on the body and the brain and the nature of permanent brain injury deficits that result.
I have been licensed in Michigan since 1979. This is the kind of situation where the right experience will not only make a difference for recovery in the lawsuit, but the recovery from the carbon monoxide poisoning.