By Ben Conley
The Dominion Post
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — Last Wednesday, Monongalia County Emergency Medical Services outfitted the primary response bags in each of its vehicles with a portable carbon monoxide detector.
Within about 48 hours, an alert from one of those units prevented what would have likely become a dangerous situation in a local restaurant.
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On Friday evening, an ambulance was deployed to the Five Guys location in the Suncrest Towne Centre with reports of an employee who had passed out at their work station.
“They entered the space and their meter immediately detected the presence of extremely high levels, lethal levels, of carbon monoxide that not only the employees, but all the patrons of the restaurant were being exposed to, " Mon EMS Director of Operations Dan Dushanko explained. “Our employees started an evacuation process, got the patient, the patrons and employees out of the space and requested the fire department.”
The patient, who was suffering from carbon monoxide poisoning, was transported to the hospital while others exposed to the gas were assessed at the scene.
Carbon monoxide is a colorless, odorless, and potentially lethal, gas that’s produced from inefficient heating and cooking. It’s also a byproduct of combustion gas engines.
In this case, the issue was traced to an appliance in the restaurant kitchen.
“The effects are very much dose dependent, So, for example, a person could be at 50 or 60 parts per million, but maybe that’s an elderly person that has pre-existing medical conditions. If they never leave the space, or stay in the home, that exposure and toxicity could take hours to days, " Dushanko said. “In this case, it was a very high concentration, so a relatively short exposure can cause the symptoms.”
While detection units for home use can be purchased for as little as $30, the 30 units purchased by Mon EMS are much more sensitive, and costly, at about $450. In addition to first responders, they’re carried by industrial hygienists as a personal dosimeter in mining and manufacturing applications.
“The goal was to get them in the field for the heating season because the most common problems come from heating systems — furnaces, boilers, wood stoves, coal stoves, pellet stoves. I suspected that within the first two weeks we would have an exposure, especially now hitting this extreme cold we just had the last few days, " Dushanko said, adding, “It’s to protect our workforce, because they could unknowingly enter a space and be exposed to carbon monoxide, as well as to detect conditions for patients and, as in this case, evacuate a space if needed.”
Mon EMS Executive Director Forest Weyen said his agency is grateful to the efforts of local fire departments who are trained and equipped to handle these types of scenarios.
“Obviously, we’re equipped to handle the patients, but this is all possible through our partnership with local fire departments. Once we identify that, we evacuate the area and call them. They have self-contained breathing apparatus. They’re the ones who can go into those environments. They can call the local utilities. That’s not our specialty, " Weyen said. “We just realize it’s a dangerous environment and get out.”
Representatives from Five Guys did not respond to requests for comment in time for this report.
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