TRAVERSE CITY Right now, Mary Smith is battling breast cancer and she goes in weekly for chemotherapy treatments. At a recent visit, Nurse Jennifer Busick, saw a change in Smith. After Smith complained of a headache. Busick insisted she get checked out, later she found out she was experiencing carbon monoxide poisoning and would’ve died that day if she went home.
“She immediately was like, are you okay? I mean, she’s watching me. And that’s the thing. She really observes her patients carefully. She pays a lot of attention to us. And she knew that I was just off. I had a really bad headache. I had been dizzy, I was nauseous, and I was walking into things,” says Mary Smith.
Smith had been experiencing symptoms for a week prior to her appointment, thinking it was her new furnace. It was actually her oven that was leaking carbon monoxide. Now she wants everyone to be aware of this in their home.
“If you have a headache, if you have tingly sensations, if you’re not sure if you’re feeling dizzy like things are just not right. And that’s what she noticed right away, is things were not right. Go get checked and make sure you have carbon monoxide detectors in your house,” explains Smith.
Nurse Jennifer Busick wants others to be aware of how sneaky carbon monoxide gas can be.
“You can’t smell it or see it. And then we do have this type of the weather that now people are out and in campers or they’re in trailers, they’re down there doing that smaller living. So I just think that we’re at more of an increased risk that people need to be out buying those carbon monoxide checkers and be aware that this is very crucial,” explains Busick.
With an unexpected wake-up call on how important these alarms are, Smith is thankful to have another chance at life.
“The end of the story was, is this beautiful woman took time out of her day the next day to literally call me and say, hey, I read the hospital report, you know, what happened and how you’re doing, but I want you to tell me how you’re doing now,” she shares.
Nurse Busick is happy that she could help her out and continues to reinforce why it’s important to listen to your body and pay attention to your family and friends too.
If you even have that inkling that you should be seeing, reach out to your primary care physician. Go to an urgent care. She thought she’s going to shake it off. But if you’re out somewhere and your family members notice that there’s something wrong, that your headache is been going on for a long time, your family doctor or anybody else that notices these things, I hope they pick up on it because it is something that normally you don’t think about.