– I woke up almost dead three days ago, Isak Dreyer tells his friend Jens Kvernmo in the podcast “Skitprat med Jens og Isak”. Isak and a friend were going grouse hunting at Saltfjellet in Nordland and the trip started just as well as it usually does. They stopped the car, lit a fire and sat and chatted into the evening. But then it got cold. – Then we lit a burner and put it inside the car. But then it got a little chilly again, so we opened the hatches and had some lager and a splash of aquavit that we had left, says Isak. The friends often sleep in the back of the car on such trips and after a while they decided to call it a night. Two men, two dogs and an alcohol burner share the air. This is Isak’s alcohol burner, which he used to keep the heat inside the car. It is a wick, which burns on ethanol alcohol. Photo: private Feeling bad Isak wakes up at nine o’clock the next morning and feels that he is nauseous and has a real headache. He really just wants to go back to bed and sleep. – I poked my friend a little, but he didn’t wake up. I felt I had to have some water and couldn’t find it in the car, so I opened the door to go out into the stream. As soon as Isak opens the back door, his dog Buster jumps out, goes straight to the ground and passes out. – You get a bit stupid just at that time, so I just thought; yes, it was funny that he should pass out. Isak Dreyer and his friend Jens Kvernmo during the recording of a new TV series from Greenland that will be released in the winter of 2023. Photo: Øyvind Nordahl Næss / news/Øyvind Nordahl Næss Isak gets out of the car and realizes for real how bad he is. He has to lean against the car and he shouts at his friend, who finally wakes up. Although Isak is so unwell that he has to crawl to get down to the stream, he doesn’t want to say anything to his friend. He thinks it’s an ear infection that makes him feel miserable. – I tried to get up to the car again, and then I disappeared. I passed out straight away. The friend gets out of the car and sees Isak and the dogs lying passed out on the ground, before he passes out himself. He gradually regains consciousness and is shaken to life in Isak. – I touched my neck and it felt like a chicken heart that I had been handed. It was at full blast, says Isak. Still went grouse hunting It’s starting to dawn on them that they are poisoned by coal. They consider whether they should seek help, but decide that it is not necessary. Instead, they try grouse hunting as agreed. It will be an uphill battle. – We started to walk, but it was almost impossible to move. My friend turned around almost immediately and went down to the car, but I tried to fight my way up, says Isak. Picture from the grouse trip that Isak was on with carbon monoxide poisoning in his blood. In the picture, we see the dog Buster who passed out when he jumped out of the car in the morning. Isak managed to shoot several grouse that day, even though he was heavily poisoned. But he says that it was a struggle to walk, and he threw up and was in terrible shape the whole trip. Photo: Isak Dreyer It is afternoon and the friend is still sitting in the car waiting for Isak. Even if he sits completely still, his heart rate is over 140. Now the friends realize that they have to get down from the mountain. Isak goes home to his family. The mother is a doctor and discovers that Isak has a resting heart rate that is twice as high as he usually is. She makes sure that both Isak and his friend get to the hospital. – I was worried, because I know how dangerous carbon monoxide poisoning is. Isak usually has a very low resting heart rate, at 40–50, but when he entered the hospital it was up to 90, says mum Ingunn Nessestrand. Could have gone very wrong – The doctors at the hospital said that we were between ten minutes and one hour away, then it would have gone really wrong, says Isak. Carbon monoxide, or carbon monoxide (CO), is a colorless and odorless gas, and many poisonings occur when people sleep. The gas binds to the hemoglobin in the red blood cells and causes the organs in the body to get too little oxygen. – Many people know that coal is formed during a fire, but it also happens in other situations with incomplete burning. In small rooms with poor ventilation, dangerous amounts of carbon monoxide can quickly form, says Jartrud Wigen Skjerdal, senior advisor at Poison Information. This can be, for example, when using grills, diesel and petrol engines and propane-powered appliances. She encourages people to make sure they use equipment and appliances correctly. If they are intended to be used indoors, you must ensure good ventilation in the room and switch off the device before going to sleep. – It may also be a good idea to use a coal loss alarm in cabins and boats where gas or aggregates are used for heating and cooking, says Skjerdal. Should have sought help straight away Isak and his friend will stay in the hospital for a day for treatment and observation. In retrospect, Isak has realized that it was not a good idea to go grouse hunting with carbon monoxide poisoning in the blood. – What we should have done was lie down right outside the car and be picked up by a helicopter and given pure oxygen right away. He is supported by Poison Information, which often receives calls from people who have been poisoned by coal. – The most important thing is to call 113 and avoid inhaling more of the gas. You must remove yourself from the source and ensure good ventilation immediately, says Jartrud Wigen Skjerdal. She points out that it is important to receive early oxygen treatment and follow-up in hospital in serious cases. Although it apparently went well this time, Isak is not fully recovered yet. – The doctors say that you can have after-effects for 20 days afterwards, both personality changes, lung collapse and heart attacks, he says. Jartrud Wigen Skjerdal in Poison Information confirms that coal poisoning can have serious consequences afterwards. – This mainly applies to patients who have clearly been poisoned with carbon monoxide and have serious symptoms, concludes Skjerdal. Isak feels in good shape now, but he feels that his heart rate is higher than normal and he gets tired more quickly than usual. He wants to tell the story to warn others about how quickly it can happen. – I feel a bit stupid, but it’s done so quickly. It was actually the waterman who saved us, because I got so thirsty that I had to go out and drink water, says Isak with a twinkle in his eye.
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Isak Dreyer was minutes from dying of carbon monoxide poisoning while grouse hunting at Saltfjellet – news Trøndelag
