Kamloops Toddler Saves Kamloops Family During Carbon Monoxide Leak

A B.C. couple says their baby daughter saved their lives after a furnace started leaking carbon monoxide overnight.

Kyle and Monique Ruppel were asleep in their Kamloops home last week when their 15-month-old daughter, Celia, woke her mom up.

“Celia typically wakes once per night. We always get up with her and help her back to sleep. On Friday, at 3 a.m., she stirred for the second time,” Monique Ruppel wrote on her Facebook page.

After being awaken for the second time that night, Ruppel attempted to walk to her daughter’s room when she says she was affected by what seemed like vertigo.

“Kyle immediately woke and we quickly realized something was wrong,” she wrote.

Ruppel says the couple experienced dizziness, headaches, nausea and burning eyes. At this point, they packed a bag, and woke Celia.

“(Celia) began vomiting and as I held her, my cat collapsed at my feet,” Ruppel recalls.

As Kyle’s parents arrived at the home, Kyle also passed out for a brief moment but came to before emergency crews arrived.

The family was then transported to the Royal Inland Hospital before being airlifted to Vancouver General Hospital for carbon monoxide poisoning treatment.

In Vancouver, they underwent treatment which included three two and a half hour sessions in a hyperbaric chamber.

The couple is now urging people to ensure they have a working carbon monoxide detector in their homes.

“Our sweet baby saved us all,” Ruppel wrote. “This precious little angel did something extraordinary. Something she will not fully understand until she is grown. She literally saved our lives.”

Over 50 Canadians die needlessly each year from carbon monoxide poisoning (according to the Ontario Association of Fire Chiefs). Symptoms of carbon monoxide poisoning are sometimes mistaken for a flu, as they include having sore eyes, head pain, fainting, confusion and feeling sleepy. If you have symptoms like these and they improve when you leave your home, that’s surefire sign you need to get your carbon monoxide detector checked.

Agencies/Canadajournal