Columbus, OH – Ten people at a Near East Side nursing home have been taken to local hospitals for treatment of suspected carbon-monoxide poisoning on Tuesday evening.
The Columbus Division of Fire was called around 5 p.m. to Bryden Place, 1169 Bryden Rd., by a person who was feeling ill.
The medic treating the person found a high level of carbon monoxide in the blood, said Battalion Chief Steve Martin of the Columbus Division of Fire.
There was a partial evacuation of the building and it was found that at least 10 people, most of them elderly residents but also a few employees, had elevated levels of carbon monoxide, Martin said.
Eventually 10 medics were summoned and a COTA bus to temporarily house people who were evacuated. The 10 people treated were taken to either the Wexner Medical Center at Ohio State University or OhioHealth Grant Medical Center, Martin said.
The more serious patients were taken to Ohio State because there’s a hyperbaric chamber that can deliver higher concentrations of oxygen.
I don’t think anybody was serious but we were just playing it safe, Martin said. He said that there were about 30 to 40 people tested and some, who were not hospitalized, quickly improved when they were moved to another part of the building.
No one was available Tuesday night at Bryden Place to answer questions.
Martin said that it’s believed that the origin of the carbon monoxide came from somewhere in the basement, where the boiler room, laundry facilities and kitchen are, because elevated readings were detected there. He said that heating, air-conditioning and gas company crews were searching for the source Tuesday evening.
The nursing home, which has 143 residents, was being ventilated. Some residents in the area affected were moved to other wings, but the building wasn’t entirely evacuated.