By: Hollie Hojek
hhojek@kcautv.com
Eight-year old Jacob Mace was sleeping inside this home Tuesday night, when he got up because he didn't feel well. And it's what he decided to do next that ultimately saved his and his family's life.
"I said 'Nana, wake up!!' because I wanted her to wake up," said Jacob Mace.
Mace woke up feeling extremely nauseous, so he crawled out of bed and stumbled to his grandma's room across the hall.
"I told him to just get in the bed, and everything would be OK. And at that point my head was pounding, it hurt so bad. My chest was hurting my arms were numb," said Mace's grandma, Debbie Beardsley.
Beardsely thought her and her grandson had come down with the flu, little did she know, the furnace she had turned on earlier that day had broken, causing a carbon monoxide leak throughout the house. It wasn't until her 16-year old granddaughter woke up feeling sick that Beardsley thought something must be seriously wrong. So the children were taken to the emergency room, where doctors diagnosed both of them with carbon monoxide poisoning. Beardsley and her 29-year old son were taken to Sioux Falls and put inside the hyper baric chambers, while the two grandchildren stayed at the hospital in Sioux City.
"I had to get shots... and get my blood taken...," said Mace, describing the worst part of the whole experience.
The strangest part of it all, Beardsley says her grandson wasn't even suppose to be sleeping at her house, he was suppose to be staying at his mom's that night.
"It's just terrifying. If you've never seen this or heard of this... it's scary. And it's very hard to realize that four of us could have lost our lives that night..if it wasn't for him waking me up," said Beardsley.
When we asked Jacob if he considers himself a hero, he said no. But his family certainly thinks otherwise.
The family did just get a brand new furnace put in the home, along with multiple carbon monoxide detectors. The family urges anyone who does not have detectors to get them in their homes as soon as possible.
