7-year-old girl drowns after succumbing to carbon monoxide
7-year-old girl drowns after succumbing to carbon monoxide
PAGE, Ariz. -- 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.
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Copyright 2007 The Associated Press.
