A sad reminder, the life you save might be your own!!

[auntAgonist]

http://cnews.canoe.ca/CNEWS/Features/2009/10/21/11478206-cp.html

Woodstock, Ontario Canada
Const. Laurie Hawkins, second right, is pictured with her family, daughter Cassandra, husband Richard Hawkins and son Jordan, in this undated family handout photo. How Laurie Hawkins survived when the rest of her family did not remains a medical mystery. And it only added to the impact of a story that continues to reverberate through the province as another home-heating season is underway. (Laurie also lost her life in this tragedy)

How was it possible that a woman who spoke day in, day out about public safety — and whose brother was a firefighter — did not own a carbon-monoxide detector?

The Hawkins family also did not have their gas fireplace serviced by a qualified heating and ventilation expert. Had they done so, they would have discovered that the pipe that was supposed to draw carbon monoxide out of the house and up the chimney was completely blocked from years of buildup.

When doctors finally determined Hawkins’ brain damage was too severe for her ever to recover, she was flown by helicopter with her sister Tracey and mother Donna Gignac to North Bay, where she and Richard grew up.

A phalanx of fire trucks, police cruisers and emergency vehicles lined the runway to welcome her home. She died a few days later.

The seemingly preventable tragedy raised public awareness about carbon-monoxide in a way no other previous accident had in Ontario.

Within days of the Hawkins family deaths, carbon-monoxide detectors began selling out in several cities and towns. Collections were set up to provide detectors to low-income families.

“It not only educated the police department but all emergency services as well as the public,” said Goodlett. “Even after Laurie’s tragedy and death, she’s still educating people. Even in death, she educates.”

North Bay officially declared that carbon-monoxide detectors were mandatory in all homes last month. Sault Ste-Marie, Ont., made the change in the spring.

Local MPP Ernie Hardeman felt so affected by the Hawkins case that he immediately drafted a private member’s bill to make detectors mandatory across the province. Currently, detectors are only mandatory in Ontario in new homes.

The Hawkins Gignac bill has passed second reading at Queen’s Park, and Hardeman says he hopes the Liberal government will give it the stamp of approval to move quickly through the legislative process.

A new study by New York City’s Mount Sinai School of Medicine backs up what police and firefighters already suspected — the numbers of patients who suffered severe effects from carbon monoxide significantly declined after that city brought in a law in 2004 requiring detectors in all homes and businesses.

“There but for the grace of God go I — it could have been my house, it could have been anyone’s house,” said Hardeman, a former volunteer firefighter.

“It would have been so simple to go to town and pay $29 for a detector and plug it in the socket and you’re done, and this would have been avoided.”

Almost a year later, Laurie Hawkins’ parents Donna and Ben Gignac in North Bay are still trying to make sense of it all.

They’ve just sold the Hawkins home in Woodstock. The fireplace was the first thing to be ripped out when they renovated it from top to bottom.

Cassie’s 15th birthday came and went on Aug. 27. They remember gentle Jordy when they hike up at Duchesnay Falls near North Bay.

The Gignacs have the kind of unanswerable questions that families have after a tragedy.

Why didn’t anyone raise they alarm when two days worth of Jordy’s papers were piled up in front of the house? Jordy was autistic, and delivering the papers like clockwork every morning at 7 a.m. was a routine that helped him get a start on the day.

Why didn’t the members of the peewee hockey team that Richard coached notice he was a no-show with all their equipment?

“Why didn’t somebody phone the house and say ‘Hey Richard, are you coming to practice? Where’s the sweaters, where’s the pucks?’,” says Donna Gignac.

They also wonder about how long the family had been suffering the affects of carbon-monoxide poisoning, since Laurie sometimes complained of feeling unwell in their home.

Above all, would Laurie have survived if someone had found her a little sooner?

But they also see meaning in what happened to Laurie. They believe Laurie survived a little longer to help them cope with the loss of Richard, Cassandra and Jordan.

“I believe Laurie did that for us, I really do. We were so busy focusing on her that it’s not that we weren’t grieving for the other ones, but it gave us a little peace. It gave us someone to talk to, someone to touch.”

And they hope that the story of their beloved daughter will save lives. Already, a nephew who had been ignoring a beeping detector in his basement discovered that his furnace was indeed leaking carbon monoxide.

“We’ll never know the answers, will we? I don’t know why He had to pick my family over someone else’s,” says Donna Gignac.

“But there had to be a good reason. ... People pay attention now. I really think that’s one of the reasons why.”

[CaliforniaPeggy]

1. My dear auntAgonist...

That is terribly sad...My heart goes out to her family. I don't know why it is so often that we fail to take care of the simplest things...

Thank you indeed for this sad reminder...

I'd recommend it if I could!


:hug:

[auntAgonist]

2. Thanks Peggy. This happened in a town really close

to where I'm from in Ontario. A small community that felt a HUGE loss. So very sad. The whole story is so detailed and should make everyone think and think hard. It's SO preventable, needless deaths, needless suffering.

[auntAgonist]

3. Kicking my own thread because I think it's important and ..

I'm going to bed now :)

:hi:

g'nite