Posted on 06/14/2013 5:33:20 PM PDT by grundle
Back in April, an elderly couple died while staying in a Best Western motel in North Carolina. The local medical examiner couldn’t find a clear cause of death. The motel continued renting the room to others until last week, when an 11-year-old boy died and his mother was rushed to the hospital. The cause? Carbon monoxide poisoning from the pool heater.
Here’s the galling part: while waiting for toxicology results, motel management just kept renting out the room to other guests. If management had some something wacky like hold off on renting that room until the results came back, maybe no one else would have died. The Charlotte Observer, hometown newspaper of the 11-year-old, reporters learned that in other jurisdictions, blood tests for carbon monoxide poisoning come back in a matter of hours, not weeks.
The room in question happens to be right over the motel’s mechanical room. Carbon monoxide, a colorless, odorless, deadly gas, seeped into the room through either the air conditioner or the gas fireplace vents. Officials believe that the gas came from the pool heater. Fire codes dictate that new houses built in North Carolina need carbon monoxide detectors, but they’re not required in motels. No staff from the medical examiner’s office visited the scene in April, and local emergency responders don’t carry equipment to detect carbon monoxide.
Blood test results would have showed that the elderly couple in April died of carbon monoxide poisoning. They were kicking off a three-week vacation, but died within hours of each other instead. The family didn’t believe that both parents, who were active and in good health, died of abrupt and simultaneous heart attacks. “Do you know how mad I am right now? Why are they still renting out this room?” their son asked reporters after learning about the child’s death in the same room.
If you happen to have stayed in Room 225 of the Best Western Plus Blue Ridge Plaza in Boone, N.C., please contact police at 828-268-6900.
It gets way worse.
http://www.newsobserver.com/2013/06/14/2964720/three-days-after-2-died-at-boone.html
Young girls in a room directly above 225 became ill three days later, nausea and headaches. Mother called desk three times.
Must have been food poisoning.
Oh it gets WAY worse. Medical examiner found lethal levels of CO in Mrs Jenkins’s blood a week before the boy died, but he didn’t inform the motel and the proper authorities.
http://www.journalnow.com/news/local/article_e6ca52fa-d533-11e2-b2e9-0019bb30f31a.html
He’s resigned now.
What was the hotel suppose to do?
Consult a crystal ball?
If they want to sue the medical examiner for being incompetent then fine. There is some responsibility there.
But should a hotel never rent out a room where someone died ever again?
You are going to have to shut down most of Las Vegas.
That's extreme negligence on the part of the ME.
The lesson here is that when checking into a motel, BYOCOD (i.e. bring your own CO detector).
I’ll tuck one in my sleep sack bag.
Holiday Inn Glen Ellyn, Il.
A young sailor and new bride, one dead one forever damaged.
Drywall screws too long and flue too close to the to the drywall.
Well, not EVERY Best Western obviously... but the franchises...
Right, because it is far more likely that a couple taking a long vacation committed suicide by undetectable means rather than SOMETHING MIGHT BE WRONG WITH THE ROOM.
Care to wager on that? I’ll take Hindus from India. With a last name of Patel.
I’ll bet Best Western doesn’t own the property.
People die of natural causes in motel rooms all the time, especially elderly ones. Unless the ME tells them otherwise, there's no reason to think that the room is haunted by poltergeists or a portal to killer aliens from another galaxy.
Best Westerns are less likely owned by Indians, from my experience, and that involves extensive travel all over the US on a fairly frequent basis. I'll wager Christians from the South, instead. Apparently other BWs have had similar incidents happen, in the same geography too, so it seems to not be as rare an occurrence as one would be led to believe.
Wanted to check my answer before I posted it so I looked it up in FAQ's:
Does Best Western franchise?Not sure what difference there is between a franchise and a "membership association of independent owners" but the it's the same thing regarding the OP's point, IMO.
No. Best Western is a membership association of independently owned and operated hotels. Each hotelier is entitled to valuable benefits as a Best Western member and each has a voice in the operation of the company. For more information on becoming a Best Western member, visit the About Us section of our site.
We booked our room at this Best Western at least five months before our arrival and we still found ourselves in a room with a view of the garbage cans at the rear of the hotel. The room was clean and comfortable but the TV was positioned at the foot of the bed rather than in the seating area. However, our experience was spoiled when it all went pear shaped at breakfast the following morning when there was very food little available. Apparently the hotel had been very busy the previous day and the food stocks had not been replenished in time for our breakfast. Coffee was also missing. I overheard the member of staff working the breakfast area be dismissive to another client who questioned the lack of food and when I made a complaint to the front desk did not receive an apology but rather the litany of excuses all offered with a laugh. Not the best customer service., Oh and the toilet didn't work properly in our room. « less
Management response from
Sonya Newberry, Front Office ManagerDear Guest,
All of us here at the Best Western Plus Blue Ridge Plaza sincerely apologize for not meeting your expectations during your visit to our hotel. We value your feedback and we will work harder to make sure that these problems do not occur again. We are already ordering extra breakfast items to insure that we do not run low during breakfast hours anymore. Again we apologize and we hope to see you again soon!
Natasha Taylor
Front Desk Manager
Best Western Plus Blue Ridge Plaza « hide
Natasha Taylor is a common Hindu name.
Or is it?
You’re right, owner is probably Indian.
They’re so cheap, they probably figure they’ve hit the jackpot since dead guests cannot dispute the credit card charges after the Indian owner wheels them out after only a half-day.
Good old 80’s horror flick. Reminds me of my youth.
That's not true. Remember the tennis player who was visiting friends in Long Island. Same thing happened. He was sleeping out by the pool.
The probability of two related people in the same room dying of heart attacks is very low. Anybody with half a brain would look for an environmental factor.
FYI
Vitas Gerulaitis - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Vitas Gerulaitis at the 1978 ABN World Tennis Tournament .... While visiting a friend’s home in Southampton, Long Island, a malfunction in an improperly installed pool heater caused carbon monoxide gas to seep into the guesthouse where ...
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.