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How My Wife's 3 AM Bathroom Trip Was The Only Thing Standing Between Permanent Brain Damage And Our Two Kids Last November
"My son was at 27% carboxyhemoglobin when we got him to the ER. The pediatrician told me he was 90 minutes from permanent brain damage."
— Jason T., Father, Colorado
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The Phone Call That Started Everything
My wife always gets up to use the bathroom at some point during the night.
She drinks a lot of water. It's a thing.
I never thought about it before last November.
Last November, the fact that my wife gets up to pee in the middle of the night is the only thing that prevented our two children from suffering permanent brain damage in a tent at 7,500 feet of elevation in Colorado.
If she had slept through the night the way most people do — the way I did — you would be reading about us in a news report about a Colorado camping trip that went wrong.
Instead, you are reading this.
I am writing this article because what almost happened to my family is what is happening to American camping families at a rate of one fatal recovery per three months in our state alone.
Most of those parents made the same mistake I made.
Most of those parents trusted the same detector I trusted.
Most of those parents did not have a wife who got up to use the bathroom at 3 AM.
If you take your kids camping — read every word.
The Trip We Were Excited About
Last November my wife Sarah and I took our two kids — Ava is 9, Mason is 7 — for a weekend camping trip three hours from our house.
It was a special trip. Mason had been begging to go camping with "just the family" for over a year. Ava was at the age where she was outgrowing some family activities.
We packed properly. Four-season tent. Quality sleeping bags. Headlamps. Extra clothing. The kind of gear you buy when you want to do this right.
Friday afternoon we set up camp. Cooked over the fire. Roasted marshmallows. Kids were happy.
By 8 PM the temperature dropped to 35 degrees. The kids were getting cold even in their sleeping bags.
I made the decision that almost killed my family.
The Heater I Brought Inside
I had a small portable propane heater I sometimes use for ice fishing.
The box said "indoor safe."
I'd used it in ice fishing shanties without issues.
I told Sarah I'd bring it into the tent for an hour to warm the kids up before bed. She asked if it was safe.
I told her the box said it was safe for indoor use.
I brought the heater into the tent. Lit it. The tent warmed up within 15 minutes. The kids climbed into their sleeping bags. We told stories. We sang.
I had every intention of turning the heater off before we went to sleep.
I forgot.
I am a 44-year-old man who installs commercial flooring for a living. I check things twice. I am detail-oriented.
I forgot.
I was tired. The kids fell asleep. Sarah and I climbed into our sleeping bags. The tent was warm. The heater was running. I told myself I would turn it off "in a minute."
I fell asleep.
The heater ran for approximately five hours.
The Bathroom Trip That Saved Us
Sarah got up around 3 AM.
She told me afterward that she felt unusually dizzy when she stood up. Her head was pounding. Her vision was unfocused.
She thought it was the altitude.
She unzipped the tent and stepped outside.
The cold air hit her face.
Within 30 seconds of being outside, her dizziness started to clear. Her headache started to ease.
That was strange. Altitude effects don't usually clear in 30 seconds.
She turned around to look back at the tent. The heater was still running. She could see the flame through the door.
She walked back. Unzipped it fully. The smell of propane combustion hit her immediately.
She knew.
She climbed in and tried to wake me. I was groggy. Disoriented. I could not understand what she was telling me.
She turned off the heater.
She tried to wake the kids. Ava was hard to wake. Mason was almost impossible.
She got me out of the tent first. The cold air woke me up enough to understand.
Together we got the kids out. Mason was so deeply unconscious that he didn't wake up until I had carried him 30 feet from the tent into the cold air.
We sat by the dead fire pit for an hour while we processed what had almost happened.
We didn't go back to sleep. We packed up at first light and drove three hours home.
I drove straight to our pediatrician's office.
The Hospital Tests
Our pediatrician immediately called the local ER and arranged for our entire family to be tested.
We arrived at noon.
Carboxyhemoglobin tests came back within 30 minutes.
Sarah was at 14%. Mine was 18%. Ava's was 22%. Mason's was 27%.
The ER physician told us anything above 25% in a child can cause permanent neurological damage.
Anything above 40% can cause death.
Mason was at 27% six hours after exposure had ended.
The doctor estimated Mason's peak carboxyhemoglobin during exposure had been somewhere between 38 and 42%.
He was within hours of the lethal range.
He was 7 years old.
He had been camping with his family.
His father had brought a heater into the tent that the box said was safe for indoor use.
The Two-Sentence Truth
Read these two sentences slowly.
Sentence One: "The 'indoor safe' marketing on every camping heater in America is technically accurate and functionally a death sentence inside a sealed tent."
After we got home, I read the manual carefully.
The fine print specified "adequate ventilation" as a minimum room volume of 800 cubic feet.
Our tent was 90 cubic feet.
The heater was producing CO at concentrations the tent volume could not safely dissipate.
The box said "indoor safe."
The actual instructions specified a space ten times the size of our tent.
I had not read the manual carefully enough.
I had trusted the marketing.
The marketing nearly killed my children.
Sentence Two: "The CO keychain you brought camping is engineered to alarm AFTER your kids stop breathing."
The keychain CO alarm I had clipped to my pack was a basic residential unit adapted for portable use.
It was designed to UL 2034 standards.
Under those standards, the alarm is required to ignore concentrations below 30 PPM completely. It is required to wait up to 240 minutes before alarming at 70 PPM.
CO levels in our tent that night peaked somewhere around 200-300 PPM based on Mason's carboxyhemoglobin measurement.
By the time the keychain would have alarmed, Mason had been at 200+ PPM concentrations for over an hour.
He was already unconscious.
The keychain hung silent on my pack inside the tent.
There was nobody alert enough to hear it anyway.
The keychain was working correctly.
It was also engineered to alarm too late to save my son.
This is not a defect.
This is the engineering specification.
I had brought into a sealed tent — to protect my family — a detector that was designed to alarm AFTER my family was already in lethal range.
The Detector I Now Carry
After that camping trip, I researched portable CO detectors.
Most keychain CO detectors marketed for camping are basic residential units adapted for portable use. They alarm at 70 PPM after 60-240 minutes of sustained exposure. They would not have alarmed in time to save Mason in our tent.
The detector I bought is called Haven.
Haven alarms at 10 PPM. Not 70.
At 10 PPM, I would have woken up. I would have known something was wrong. I would have turned off the heater. My family would never have been in danger.
Haven shows the actual PPM concentration on a screen at all times. There is no green light. There is a number you can check before you fall asleep.
Haven is portable. Battery-powered. It runs on a single charge for an entire weekend trip.
I have not gone camping without it since that November.
I never will.
The Offer
Right now Haven is offering their best pricing:
2-Pack — $139 ($69.50 each) For the tent and the truck. Or the tent and home. Carry one wherever your family sleeps.
4-Pack — $219 ($54.75 each) — MOST POPULAR Full family coverage. Tent, RV, hunting cabin, home. Every place your kids close their eyes covered.
8-Pack — $379 ($47.38 each) Yours and your extended family's. Your kids' grandparents' RV, your hunting buddies' cabins, your sister's house. Eight zones, one decision.
Every order includes:
✓ Free US Shipping
✓ 90-Day Money-Back Guarantee
✓ Lifetime Replacement Warranty
✓ Real-time PPM display + electrochemical sensor (10 PPM early warning)
Two Futures
If you take your family camping this season with the equipment you have right now — you are not protected.
The "tent-safe" heater is not tent-safe in any volume your tent will ever be.
The keychain CO alarm clipped to your backpack is engineered to alarm too late.
The campground host is not coming for hours after sunrise.
You are alone with your kids and a heater that produces CO in a tent that retains it.
While your kids sleep.
While you sleep.
CO has no smell. No color. No warning.
Future One: Pack the same gear you packed last fall. Bring the same heater. Trust the same keychain alarm. Hope you don't fall asleep before turning the heater off the way I did. Hope your wife happens to wake up at 3 AM the way mine did. Hope your kids' carboxyhemoglobin doesn't hit 27% the way Mason's did. Hope you are not the family the ranger finds Sunday morning.
Future Two: Order Haven before your next trip. It arrives within a week. You set it next to your sleeping bag at night. You check the screen before you fall asleep. If it ever shows anything but zero, you ventilate the tent before your kids reach the carboxyhemoglobin levels mine reached.
What already happened to my family cannot be undone.
What happens on your next trip can.
Mason almost couldn't.
You still can.
(I linked the detector I use below)
GET HAVEN BEFORE YOUR NEXT TRIP →
"After we got Mason home from the ER I bought four Havens. Tent, RV, both kids' bedrooms. I check the screens every night before bed. Four zeros. Mason is back in school full-time. He is the reason I'm asking you to get this." — Jason T., Colorado
"Took the family to a state park last March. Brought the heater in for an hour. Haven hit 11 PPM in 22 minutes. Turned the heater off. Slept cold. My kids are 6 and 8. Get the monitor. Don't be Jason's family." — Eric K., Wisconsin
"My husband does pheasant hunting trips with our boys every fall. They use a propane heater in a hunting blind. Haven alarmed at 14 PPM the first time they used it. They got out. He bought one for every blind. Get this for the men in your life." — Lauren M., Iowa
If you aren’t taking Alpha BRAIN®, you are operating at a disadvantage.
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If you aren’t taking Alpha BRAIN®, you are operating at a disadvantage.
Find out why.
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Note: Haven is a residential and portable carbon monoxide detector. Never operate any combustion device inside a tent or enclosed shelter, regardless of marketing claims. If you suspect CO poisoning, exit the shelter immediately and seek medical attention. This article reflects the personal experience of the author.
For a limited time, you can save up to 50% when you purchase a multipack of Steadfast Haven®.
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