South Euclid, OH- Cats may have nine lives but the Gambrell family pet Precious wasn’t about to waste one. The cat, she saved me, said Laura Gambrell.
It was Tuesday, October 22, and Laura and her 12-year-old daughter Jackie were both feeling tired after dinner. She went to sleep pretty quickly which is unusual but not alarming and I was having a hard time staying awake, said Laura.
It was just after 10 p.m. that Laura’s sleep was broken by Precious, who came into her room howling. Which is not like her, she is not a vocal cat, it alarmed me and I got up, she said.
She no sooner took a step or two when it hit her. “I felt like I had been drinking more than I could possibly drink, everything was pressurized and like very disoriented and very dizzy.”
I came downstairs but as I came down the stairs I realized I was ill, badly ill, I couldn’t breathe very well, she said.
She made her way to the basement where she found that the cover for the furnace was lying on the floor, she didn’t know what the problem was but she knew enough to realize this was carbon monoxide.
She woke her daughter and got her out of the house and went to a neighbor’s where they called the fire department.
When firefighters arrived they found CO levels of 150 in the garage. As we proceeded down to the basement the readings were up to 700 parts per million, said South Euclid Firefighter and Paramedic Marvin Willock. Normal we consider anything seven and below.
Laura and Jackie were taken to the hospital and eventually released once the CO in their blood got down to an acceptable level.
They didn’t come directly home though, they stopped at the store and bought a carbon monoxide detector.
“I have so much guilt that we didn’t do it, I mean we talked about it – let’s get one of the combos or what kinds, we talked about it a million times and we just hadn’t done it, said Laura. I can’t believe we didn’t have it and I can’t believe how many people don’t.”