Jackson Heights, TX – A 13-year-old girl is being credited with saving her family’s lives after a carbon monoxide leak at their home.
It happened Wednesday in the 10000 block of County Road 3174 in the Jackson Heights community.
Officials are now blaming a generator the family was using to power their home after Tuesday night’s storms knocked out electricity.
Keaunte Hudson knew something was wrong when she, her 7-year-old brother, Keanu, and their grandmother all started feeling sick.
“My headache was just going like this, just flashing, flashing. It never stopped,” she said. “I would try to take some medicine and it still wouldn’t do nothing. It was that kind of headache that wouldn’t go away.”
Keaunte’s first instinct was to call her mother at work.
“I tried to get up to talk to my grandmother and I just completely fell on the ground, and then I could hear her still screaming my name,” she said.
Keaunte’s mother, Jessica Hudson, rushed over and pulled her family out of the home.
“When I got them outside to the porch and my mom kept talking crazy, and I couldn’t get them to come back to me,” said Jessica Hudson.
Officials later discovered the generator, even though it was on the front porch, was too close to the house and was seeping potentially-deadly poisonous carbon monoxide fumes inside.
“They say carbon monoxide is the silent killer, or the invisible killer, because it is odorless and it’s tasteless, and you’re not going to know it’s there. And the symptoms it brings about initially are flu-like,” said Tyler Fire Marshal Paul Findley.
Now Keaunte is being hailed a hero, but she gives her mom most of the credit.
“I’m just glad that I called my mom and she came to rescue us,” she said.
And as for her mother, she says she will never make the same mistake again.
“All this is new to me. I didn’t know that could happen,” Hudson said. “I didn’t know the generator was going to do that, that it would cause this much damage.”
Experts say you should have several carbon monoxide detectors throughout your home, especially near bedrooms. And if you need to use a generator, make sure you have it outdoors in a well-ventilated area, and never in a garage that is attached to the home.
Findley says any gas appliance can become potentially deadly if it begins to leak carbon monoxide, so you need to have all your gas appliances inspected every year.
Keaunte and Keanu were released from the hospital Thursday. Their grandmother is in fair condition at ETMC, but is expected to be okay.