11-year-old Newfoundland boy dies of carbon monoxide poisoning in Regina
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A mother is heartbroken as her 11-year-old son died in a carbon monoxide incident and her husband has been admitted to hospital in a critical condition.
Marina Hills’ son, Henry Losko, died on Dec. 19 after carbon monoxide leaked into the building during maintenance work on his apartment at 1827 Albert St. in Regina. Her husband, Sergio Losco, survived but is still in hospital.
“I used to tell my son, ‘You are loved and respected every day of your life,'” she said. “Then I’ll say, ‘Do you know how much I love you?’ And he’d say, ‘To the moon and back a million times,’ and I said, ‘Yeah.’
“He was my best friend.”
Henry Losko, 11, died of carbon monoxide poisoning in his family’s apartment in Regina, and his father is still recovering in hospital. The family had moved from St. John’s, NL, to Saskatchewan for a new job and football opportunities for Losco.
Hills said the family just moved to Regina from St. John’s, NL. To start a new job a few weeks ago. That day she went to work in the morning as usual. She tried calling home in the afternoon and got no answer, but she assumed they were busy.
When she got off work and returned home, she said she ran into the apartment and yelled for help for the turkey he was carrying, but he was quiet.
Hills went into the kitchen and saw her husband lying on the floor. She said at first she thought she was having a stroke and started screaming for help.
“His eyes were wide, but he was unconscious. They were bugged out of his head,” he said.
Hills then realized Henry was unresponsive, and she ran out of the kitchen into the bedroom, where she found her son also unconscious. She said that’s when she realized it could be a gas leak, and she pulled her son out of the apartment and screamed for help. A neighbor came to his aid and called 911.
Hills ran back to her apartment to get her husband out.
She said, “At first I couldn’t move him… but I used all my strength and managed to pull him out of there. I pulled him out of the door and I saw that he was still breathing.” “I ran back to my son and called 911 to put the phone up to Henry’s mouth to see if he was breathing.”
“I said, ‘That’s not it. There’s nothing.'”
He tried to revive Henry until first responders arrived and took over. She said she was sitting on the floor when someone came and told her that her son was dead and that they were taking her husband to the hospital.
When the coroner allowed her to return to where her son was later that night, she said she ran over to him and began kissing him.
“I just kept telling her how much I loved her. I told her she needed to wake up. I said, ‘Just wake up. If you wake up, it’ll all be over and we can go and go home.’
She said the coroner told her they did not need to perform an autopsy because blood tests showed the carbon monoxide levels in her son’s blood were fatally high.
just moved to regina
Hills said his family moved from St. John’s, NL, to Regina after he got a new job, which allowed him to enroll Henry in “an expensive football program” with a “very competitive” team in the city.
He said Henry wanted to play for the national team and had a dream of going to the Olympics.
“He was very happy and he had a lot of friends and we just moved here and he was very excited to be in Regina to start a new adventure,” Hills said.
The manager of the football team where Henry played at St. John’s said in a statement that the football community there was “saddened” by his death.
Melissa Turner wrote, “He had a smile that lit up every room and a laugh that was truly infectious.” “As a goalkeeper for St. John’s soccer, he had a true passion for soccer and was a force to be reckoned with on the field. He was the true definition of a teammate – he was a friend to everyone he met, he had a heart of gold and a spirit that lifted those around him.”
ongoing investigation
At a news conference Monday, Regina Fire and Protective Services Chief Layne Jackson said the investigation is ongoing.
“What we can confirm so far is that some mechanical work was being done on some service equipment in the building,” he said.
“That piece of service equipment was actually identified as the source of the carbon monoxide release,” Jackson said. “They inspected, verified and confirmed that other service within the building is operational and that the building is safe.”
By 1:30 pm Saturday, all affected residents were allowed to return home.
Multiple agencies are investigating, including the fire department, police, the Technical Safety Authority of Saskatchewan and the Saskatchewan Coroners Service.
