Marquette, MI – A man overcome with carbon monoxide who a Michigan Department of Natural Resources conservation officer tried to rescue last week has died.
The incident occurred at 3:43 p.m. Wednesday when CO Mike Evink was dispatched to a home along Hutt Lake Drive in Schoolcraft County.
A deliveryman for Suburban Propane had gone to fill a propane tank at the home of 59-year-old Ronald Haug. Arriving at the house in Inwood Township, the driver noticed Haug on the floor of his garage.
The 55-year-old deliveryman went into the garage and tried to revive Haug with cardiopulmonary resuscitation. He also called emergency operators at Central Dispatch.
He told the dispatcher he was getting dizzy and couldn’t do CPR any longer, Evink said. Dispatchers then lost contact with him.
Evink, who had been at Indian Lake State Park, roughly 15 miles away, went to the home, driving his four-wheel-drive patrol vehicle through 5 or 6 miles of unplowed roadway to reach the house.
Once there, he saw footprints leading into the garage.
I opened the service door to the garage and saw two individuals on the ground, Evink said.
Evink said the deliveryman had a pulse and was breathing, but was unresponsive. Haug had no pulse and also did not respond. The men had been overcome by carbon monoxide, a colorless, odorless toxic gas. Haug did not survive.
The delivery man was barely alive, said Lt. Eugene Skip Hagy, a DNR district law supervisor out of the Newberry office. Mike opened the big garage door and worked to get the victim fresh air and kept trying to get him conscious.
An ambulance with advanced life support paramedics from Manistique Public Safety got to the house at 4:24 p.m., about 15 minutes after Evink had arrived.
The deliveryman was in stable condition when he was rushed to Schoolcraft Memorial Hospital in Manistique. Officers interviewed him Thursday night. He was being treated and monitored. No further update was available on his condition.
The source of the carbon monoxide is still being investigated.