Near Death Experience

Don't have my carbon monoxide detector just yet, even though it's the law now. The silent killer, it's called, the deadly gas that victims can neither smell nor taste nor see. Carbon monoxide nearly wiped out the guests at the New York Sligo Association gala in Long Island.

On Saturday, Debbie McGoldrick was named Sligo woman of the year, perhaps because of her fine work as news editor of the Irish Voice. Politician Fergus O'Dowd, visiting from County Louth, was taken ill at the banquet where the announcement was toasted, but of course at the time he had no idea why his head was throbbing. He could have put it down to the noise, too much salt in the food, or even some bad hops in the beer. Ms. McGoldrick had to take her little girl home because the child felt sick, but again, at the time she did not know why and may have been somewhat upset to have to leave her own party early. Of all the times for the child to take sick, she could have thought to herself, not knowing that her little canary in the mine shaft was providing a warning.

The president of the association, Bridie O'Reilly, had to be carried out by paramedics after she passed out some time before midnight. There she was, enjoying the evening, and she begins to feel weaker and weaker until she falls to the floor. Yet there was no odd smell to warn her, no off taste to her food or drink. If Ms. O'Reilly had not fainted, it's likely that the alarm would not have been sounded when it was, and who knows how many might have succumbed to the deadly gas?

Turns out that the flue was blocked, which is what usually causes CO to back up into the rooms being heated. By the end of the evening, twenty people were treated for CO poisoning in the local hospital. By the end of this week, the lawsuits will be getting filed against the banquet hall with the blocked flue.

Expect Mr. O'Dowd to propose that carbon monoxide detectors be standard issue for all public and private places in Ireland. Now that he's experienced first hand what it's like to come that close to dying and not even realizing you were on the way out, he can argue forcefully for the passage of a law that requires the addition of CO detectors. Nothing like a retelling of his experience to bring it home to his fellow politicians. And a CO detector isn't all that expensive, considering the peace of mind.

Nothing as sure as death and taxes, and today I'm meeting with the accountant to get my annual income taxes filed. (You spend a lot on stamps, he'll say, and I'll just nod. One of these days I'll have some income to post against that particular expense.) Before the day is over, I'll have a CO detector installed in the house, and I'll put a new battery in the smoke detector while I'm at it. Death and taxes are guaranteed, and the tax business comes around with regularity. We can at least stave off the death bit for a while, or make sure the Grim Reaper doesn't come around in a haze of carbon monoxide.