Shorewood, MN – A Shorewood family was rushed to the hospital early Friday and treated for carbon monoxide poisoning after police say a child called 911.
According to South Lake Minnetonka police chief Mike Meehan, officers responded to a call on Virginia Cove around 3:08 a.m. Friday.
He said at least one of the children called 911 to say their parents were “falling over.”
“So the 10-year-old boy who heard the commotion upstairs, went up to see what was going on with his mother and father,” Meehan said. “One of the parents told him to call 911 and he did. He’s the hero of this story, to me.
“He absolutely did a great job in getting help there to save the lives of his family.”
Meehan said the father of the children was able to talk to the dispatcher despite his condition. And police and fire responded to what turned out to be a carbon monoxide poisoning event.
According to police, the source of the CO leak has not been determined.
“I think its important that when we look at this story we’re not looking to assign blame to people, but we’re looking at it as a reminder to make sure our friends and our families and our neighbors get the message to make your CO detectors are working,” Meehan said.
The entire family was taken to the hospital, but they have all been treated and released.The parents and children were on different floors, which may have had an impact on their level of exposure.
“It’s pretty scary” Meehan said. “We feel really fortunate in the police department … that it turned out the way it did, because it certainly had the potential to turn out very, very differently and very tragically.”