A sad week

[RickSE]

We were not on the lake but my daughter lost one of her classmates on our lake last week to carbon monoxide poisoning/drowning. :frown: She was a beautiful little girl and only 7-years old. Everyone I know has some connection to the family, knowing them directly or knowing of them. We live in a small town and this was a big blow to the community. Lake Powell takes several lives every year but to take one so young really hurts.

Please be careful around running boats, especially with little ones.

On a side note,
Last Friday afternoon, the day of her funeral, I was outside working on our yard and looked up in the eastern sky to see the largest, brightest rainbow I've ever seen here in AZ. It was a full rainbow, end to end with a second rainbow on top at one end and the brightest end was nested smack dab in the middle of town. Good rainbows are rare in Arizona and never happen with the brilliance of this one. It was amazing and I have to hope it was her way of saying goodbye.

Megan's Obituary (http://www.legacy.com/azcentral/Obituaries.asp?Page=LifeStory&PersonID=90565556)

PAGE - A 7-year-old Flagstaff girl drowned in Lake Powell after she was overcome with carbon monoxide fumes, the first such death in the Glen Canyon National Recreation Area on the Arizona-Utah border in five years. Megan Evans, 7, was swimming with her friend, Kayleen Tubbs, 7, near two cabin cruiser boats at their campsite on the shoreline of Lake Powell, according to Glen Canyon spokesman Kevin Schneider. Kayleen's mother, who had been showering using hot water from the boat motor, noticed her daughter unconscious in the water and sinking. She jumped in and rescued the girl, and several people began attending to her. While Kayleen was being treated, the group noticed Megan was missing and soon found her unconscious at the bottom of about 5 to 10 feet of water. Paramedics performed CPR on Megan, and both girls were then flown to the Page Hospital. Megan died, and Kayleen lived after receiving intense oxygen treatments, Schneider said. Carbon monoxide is an odorless, colorless gas produced by all motors. If it accumulates in the blood, it can cause death. At the time of Saturday's accident, Schneider said winds were extremely calm, which prevented the carbon monoxide from dispersing. He said a carbon monoxide-related death hasn't occurred at Glen Canyon since 2002, when a girl died from carbon monoxide poisoning after she and a young friend were washing their hair near the exhaust of a cabin cruiser. After her friend left to have lunch, the girl was found floating in four inches of water and attempts to revive her were unsuccessful.

[chappy]

I wish I had the words. I don't have children, but if I did, this story would make me hug them and not want to let go.

Rich

[Donziweasel]

Rick, I am so sorry to hear that. I am sure everyone here sends there thoughts and condolences to the family.

[RickSE]

An update on this story.

http://www.sltrib.com/news/ci_6355187

Tragedy leads parents to raise alarm about CO

Their daughter died from inhaling gas emitted by their boat, and now they work to warn others

By Erin Alberty
The Salt Lake Tribune
Salt Lake Tribune

Article Last Updated:07/12/2007 02:36:29 AM MDT

Panic erupted Saturday when family and friends realized 7-year-old Kayleen Tubbs was floating unconscious in Lake Powell.

Her friend, Megan Evans, had been swimming with her behind a 30-foot cabin-cruiser. But no one immediately noticed Megan was missing.

"We were all so focused on Kayleen, we didn't know Megan was gone," said her father, Matthew Evans of Flagstaff, Ariz.

Both girls had inhaled carbon monoxide from the boat, where Kayleen's mother was showering with water heated by its running motor. A cousin eventually pulled Megan to the surface after finding her under more than 5 feet of water.

Kayleen recovered with oxygen treatments; Megan did not survive.

Her parents, Matthew and Jennifer Evans, now hope for increased awareness about the dangers of CO with all boats, not just houseboats. They have set up a memorial fund through Chase Bank in Flagstaff for a public education campaign. For information, call (928) 779-7411.

"You don't think it can happen to you . . . ," Evans said, "and the next thing you know, you're burying your 7-year-old daughter."

Doctors said Megan's CO levels were so high she wouldn't have survived even if she hadn't drowned, Evans said.

The girls "weren't even very close" to the boat, he said, but National Park Service staff told him "the conditions were just perfect for [the gas] not to go anywhere; it was completely still," Evans said.

Now he is seeking tougher safety training requirements for boaters. Utah, like most states, has no license requirements for adult boaters.

"You need a license to drive a car, a license to fish, a license to do so many things," he said. "Anyone can drive a boat."

Evans also wants to see larger caution labels on boats, as California now requires.

Starting in 2008, California also will require new boat engines to include technology that limits CO, said Jane McCammon, an adviser for the Double Angel Foundation, a Colorado-based CO awareness group.

"Engineering controls have the biggest impact,"
McCammon said. "That takes the human factor out."

As the Evans plan Megan's funeral Friday, the Tubbses are sharing their sorrow.

"Every time their little girl sees us," Evans said, "she comes up and gives us a hug and says she didn't want Megan to die."

[RickSE]

One of the comments that arose from the above article.

"The girls were swimming beside one of the boats. Kayleen's mom was talking to them as she was rinsing her hair with a shower on the deck.
She told them not to swim behind the boat. They decided to get out of the water. Kayleen started up the ladder on her family's boat and Megan was swimming to her family's boat.
Kayleen got part way up the ladder and fell back into the water. She was unconscious. Her mother grabbed her and couldn't get a grip on her. Her mother screamed for help and Kayleen's father, who was on the boat, grabbed Kayleen. Megan's father walked through the water from his boat to help Kayleen's dad get her into the boat. She had a bump on her head and they thought she had been knocked unconscious when she fell. They also weren't sure she was alive. They had no reason to believe her problem was carbon monoxide poisoning. There were 8 boats of families with their group and everyone who possibly could tried to help with Kayleen. They believed that Megan had gotten on her family's boat. When they discovered she hadn't they immediately began searching for her and found her in the water about 10 feet behind Kayleen's family's boat and toward her own family's boat. It happened in a matter of seconds. Both families want people to know that this can happen extremely quickly and that it isn't just a houseboat problem, as these boats were cabin cruisers. These families are very good friends who spend most of their summer weekends with their families at Lake Powell. They are committed to educate people of the dangers of carbon monoxide and how quickly it can kill."

[jl1962]

What a tragedy. I have three young kids. Accidents can strike anyone, anywhere. Thanks for educating the rest of us. The more we know, the better prepared we can be.

Peace

[yeller]

Rick, that is so very sad. My prayers go out to the Evans.


I'm not a big advocate of overzealous rules and regulations, but I do agree that there needs to be better boater education.

[Cuda]

I don't have the words to describe how badly I feel about this tragedy.

God bless her soul, and help her love one's get through this.

[catch 22]

Our thoughts and prayers are with the Evan's family. May God be with them.

[RickSE]

My daughter was not real close to Megan and we didn't really have any contact with the family other then some birthday parties and school. Everyday though this subject seems to pop up. My wife and I noticed yesterday that our daughter had written the word "SAD" on the front cover of her Kindergarten class phone book.:frown:

[RickSE]

Just an update. Megan's family has put up a web site to help communicate the dangers of Carbon Monoxide Poisoning.

Megans Cause (http://www.meganscause.org/#)

Looks like it's a fairly new site and not complete but coming along. My daughter's school is selling bracelets with Megan's name for $1 to help raise funds. The kids were buying them like mad this morning. :)