5-Day-Old Infant Won’t Eat, Family Calls Poison Control

May 28, 2021 by apost team

A new baby is always a cause for celebration, especially for a young couple expecting for the first time. Bethany Taylor and her husband, Kendall, welcomed their firstborn child into the world on Jan. 4, 2021, in Provo, Utah. However, just five days later they would return to the hospital after their daughter, Jane, would not wake up to eat. The excessive sleepiness worried the new parents and they rushed back to see Jane’s pediatrician. The doctor declared Jane was fine and sent the family home.  

After returning home from the hospital, Bethany and Kendall began to feel nauseous and they had headaches. Jane’s grandmother came to help out and she too began to feel ill while she was in the apartment. The couple decided to search for their symptoms online and found them to match the signs of carbon monoxide poisoning. They called poison control who told them to immediately go to the emergency room.  

The Taylors quickly rushed back to the hospital and this time they saw Dr. James Stewart who had baby Jane placed in a hyperbaric chamber with her mother for three two-hour sessions. The highly concentrated oxygen at increased pressures acts as a type of medicine to counteract the poisoning from carbon monoxide. The family waited patiently to see if the treatment would work.

Thankfully, the newborn was fine and showed much improvement after spending time in the hyperbaric chamber. Jane is the youngest person to ever use the device in the state of Utah. The family suspected the poisoning was caused by an old heater in their apartment. The landlord has since installed a carbon monoxide detector in the home.  

Upon realizing that all of his family members were experiencing similar symptoms, it began to dawn on Kendall what may have been causing the problem so he googled carbon monoxide poisoning. "Headaches and like the [sic] nausea, vomiting. We saw it was similar to what we were experiencing," he told Fox 13 news. 

Jane is Bethany and Kendall’s first child, but even they knew her symptoms were not normal. "She was really, really sleepy and she wasn’t waking up to eat," Bethany said. This is why they took her to the pediatrician initially but were told the baby was fine. Instead of heeding that advice, they did their own research and returned right away when they suspected Jane was poisoned. 

Thankfully, the doctors listened the second time and Jane was treated right away. "We sat in there for two hours. Each session was two hours. We did three sessions, one that night and then we came back the next morning and the next afternoon," Bethany explained. 

"We hope nobody ever beats her record," Jane’s mom said about her holding the record for being the youngest person to use a hyperbaric chamber. The entire ordeal was terrifying for the parents, but luckily there was a happy ending. Bethany said:

"We got it in enough time that the treatment worked and hopefully it won’t have any lasting effects from it."

The baby’s family and doctors could tell right away that she was feeling better. "After the treatments he checked her and it was like night and day difference, how much more responsive she was to everything going on around her," said Jane’s mother.     

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Finally, Jane was acting like a typical newborn again and was able to eat. “She was just like a baby again. She cried, she responded to her mom. She uh, was very hungry when she came out of the chamber,” Dr. Stewart told the KSL5 news team. Bethany told them:

"I couldn't believe this was happening to my new, brand new little baby and I was so worried about what was going to happen with her."

Now, the Taylors are advocating for a law to require landlords to install carbon monoxide detectors in every residence. "It's probably something you won’t be prepared for or have on your radar," Bethany said to Fox 13. The Taylors certainly weren’t aware of the danger until they were faced with a life or death situation. 

In the Taylor family's home state of Utah, there is currently no law to enforce such a rule. However, Ogden Fire Chief Mike Mathieu has been working to change that. 

In an interview with KSLTV from 2018, Mathieu explains why the current law, which places the onus on the occupant instead of the landlord, is confusing. "It lacks common sense. It's very difficult to enforce such a confusing principle that you, as an occupant, have to provide a carbon monoxide detector. But you as the occupant can ask the landlord to provide a smoke detector," Mathieu said. 

Unfortunately, the new law has not yet been passed and Mathieu fears it will take more tragedy before it is. He said to KSLTV, "When someone important enough dies here in the state of Utah, the law here will change just like it did in Colorado, just like it did in many different parts of this country.” Hopefully, with help from advocates like the Taylor family, that will not be the case.     

Do you have a carbon monoxide detector in your home? Would you consider getting one? Let us know what you think and be sure to pass this along to your friends and family, it may save a life.