CO Springs, CO- KKTV – A bizarre case of carbon monoxide poisoning in Colorado Springs leaves one man dead and sends nine people to the hospital.
The story unfolded Friday morning at a home on the city’s north side. Police and fire officials say 85 year old Bud Gill, who lived in the house, apparently came home Thursday night and accidentally forgot to turn off his car after parking it in the garage. He called his daughter about 8:30 p.m. to say he was feeling dizzy and nauseous. He declined to go to the hospital, but asked her to check on him in the morning. When she did, she found her father dead.
While waiting for emergency crews to arrive, Gill’s daughter and an in-home nurse began to feel sick. As paramedics and police officers attended to the women, they too began to feel ill.
One of the firefighters got a carbon monoxide detector from the truck and it registered off the chart inside the home. By the time they realized what was happening, 9 people went to the hospital for treatment, including four firemen and two police officers. They later determined the man’s SUV was still running inside the closed garage.
“Trust me when I tell you, I forget important things myself. So I’m guessing that’s what happened with him. But there was certainly no indication that this was anything other than accidental, says Sgt. Everett Perdue of the Colorado Springs Police Department.
In another strange twist, a neighbor had been inside the home, but left. She was later found passed out in her car in a grocery store parking lot. She too was taken to the hospital.
Some of the people who went to the hospital were being treated in a hyperbaric chamber and are expected to be okay.
Bud Gill was a retired Naval Commander who retired from NORAD in 1971. He was also a Range Rider and an organizer for the Pikes Peak or Bust Rodeo. Gill’s son-in-law is John Suthers, the U.S. Attorney for the state of Colorado.
Firefighters say it is vitally important for homes to have a working carbon monoxide detector.