Carbon monoxide tragedy leaves powerful legacy nearly a year later

There was no way Const. Laurie Hawkins should have been alive.

When her police colleagues kicked down the front door of her Woodstock, Ont., bungalow last December, they got a tragic snapshot of a family killed three days earlier from carbon monoxide poisoning.

The petite, 41-year-old Ontario Provincial Police officer lay in her underclothes halfway through the doorway of her son Jordan's room.

Hawkins had apparently gone to check on Chippewa Avenue's eager 12-year-old paper-boy, whom she had picked up from the YMCA a few hours earlier.

In the next room, 14-year-old Cassandra was on the floor beside her bed. The gregarious Grade 9 student had had her braces removed a few days earlier, and had been at her friend's house that evening baking cookies and sending messages on MSN.

Quintessential hockey dad Richard Hawkins was on the floor of the bathroom in his pyjamas. He had turned on the fireplace in the basement to warm things up a bit while he watched the tube and ate popcorn.

What Richard Hawkins didn't know was that the small exhaust vent that funnelled carbon monoxide from the gas fireplace out through the chimney was completely blocked from years of use.

And the caption to this grim picture: they did not own a carbon monoxide detector and did not get their chimney checked.

OPP Sgt. Jack Rutkauskas was the first to arrive on the scene. It was Monday, and his pal Laurie hadn't been into work since Thursday.

He tried to peer into the windows, but the curtains were drawn and the glass appeared to be steamed up on the inside. He called for backup from the local Oxford County police force.

Adrenaline pumping hard, Rutkauskas barrelled in.

He looked at each body in the stiflingly hot home and determined they had been dead for some days - it turns out probably since Thursday evening.

Then Rutkauskas opened a window and nearly jumped out of his skin.

"That's when Laurie did cough and she started to breathe," he says, recalling the shock.

Incredibly, Laurie Hawkins was still hanging on to life after more than three days inside the carbon monoxide-choked home. She lasted another eight days before she, too, passed away.

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.

An estimated 414 Canadians died of carbon monoxide poisoning between 2000 and 2007, according to statistics provided by provincial coroners and compiled by The Canadian Press. Hundreds more are treated each year for exposure to the colourless, odourless gas.

Police, emergency workers, doctors and several communities were able to draw valuable lessons about treatment and prevention from the Hawkins family tragedy.

That morning, Dec. 1, Rutkauskas quickly pulled Laurie Hawkins' body out to the cold and into a waiting ambulance. He did chest compressions to keep up her shallow breathing, then a mask was quickly placed over her mouth to deliver pure oxygen.

After a brief stop at Woodstock General Hospital, she was sent to Toronto General Hospital for treatment in a hyperbaric oxygen chamber.

Dr. Randy Wax of neighbouring Mount Sinai Hospital oversaw her care. He says Hawkins may have had the highest levels of carbon monoxide of any known survivor.