Mom Didn't Know Running Generator In House Could Kill: Sheriff

LAKELAND, FL — As a Lakeland woman recovers in a Miami hospital following a post-Hurricane Irma carbon monoxide incident, Polk County officials have released more details about her 7-year-old daughter’s death.

According to the Polk County Sheriff’s Office, Terryn Wilson died due to “carbon monoxide intoxication.” The agency reported Thursday that an autopsy had been performed by the Polk County medical examiner. Dr. Stephen Nelson determined that the cause of death was accidental.

Authorities also released more details about what happened leading up to Terryn’s death. The little girl’s mother, Shashunda Wilson told detectives that she obtained a generator after the storm. (For more hurricane news or local news from Florida, click here to sign up for real-time news alerts and newsletters from Lakeland Patch. Click here to find your local Florida Patch. If you have an iPhone, click here to get the free Patch iPhone app.)

It was “the first time she had used one, and she was not aware that it could not be in the home,” the sheriff’s office wrote in a Thursday email.

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Shashunda Wilson remained hospitalized Thursday in critical, but stable condition.

The sheriff’s office said the carbon monoxide level in the Wilson home was measured at 150 parts per million. The level measured in the unoccupied side of the duplex was 88 parts per million. The Occupational Safety and Health Administration says the maximum level for exposure is “50 parts of the gas per million parts of air averaged during an 8-hour period of time.”

With much of Polk County still without power after Hurricane Irma, officials are trying to warn residents about the dangers of carbon monoxide poisoning when generators are running. To find out more, read this related story: Carbon Monoxide Poisoning Sickens Polk County Residents.

Photo courtesy of the Polk County Sheriff’s Office