Snowed-In Nightmare: Mother & Child Die While Shovelling Car Out

When a city or town hear of an impending snow storm, the normal precautions exist such as keeping people warm, ensure enough food is available and road and streets are clear. But a new danger exists that many don’t think about; carbon monoxide poisoning.

A mother and child in Passaic, New Jersey died over the weekend from carbon monoxide that filled the family’s car instead of releasing through the vehicle’s tailpipe during the latest heavy snow, Winter Storm Jonas.

Twenty-three-year-old Sashalynn Rosa Bonilla and her one-year-old son Messiah lost their lives as her husband tried to dig their car out of the snow. As many of us do, we turn the car on to warm it up while we head back out into the cold to rid the car of snow on it and around it.

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The husband was literally only a feet away from his family while his family was breathing in the trapped fumes. The mother and son were in the car with Messiah’s three-year-old sister for a total of 20 minutes trying to keep warm before Felix Bonilla Jr. noticed they were unresponsive.

The snow covering the car’s tailpipe went undetected, pushing the deadly carbon monoxide into the vehicle. Neighbors attempted to perform CPR on the wife and baby, but it was too late. The three-year-old girl was taken to a local hospital, where she was listed in critical condition.

The most common symptoms of carbon monoxide poisoning are:

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• dull headache
• weakness
• nausea
• vomiting
• confusion

• dizziness
• difficulty breathing

If you breathe in large amounts on carbon monoxide, your body will begin to replace the oxygen in your blood with carbon monoxide. When this occurs, you can become unconscious and over time, death will occur.

You should go to the hospital right away if you’ve been exposed to a source of CO, even if you don’t show symptoms of CO poisoning.

The best way to treat CO poisoning is to breathe in pure oxygen. This treatment increases oxygen levels in the blood and helps remove CO from the blood. Your doctor will place an oxygen mask over your nose and mouth and ask you to inhale. If you’re unable to breathe on your own, you’ll receive oxygen through a ventilator.

“She was an amazing mom,” her friends say of Sashalynn. “If you saw her, you saw her kids with her. She was never not with them.”