A Kamloops girl hospitalized after being overcome with carbon monoxide during a camping trip continues to recover and may be able to soon return home.
Lucille Beaurain died and daughter Micaela Walton, 10, was rushed to B.C. Children’s Hospital in Vancouver after the pair was overcome with carbon monoxide on May 18 while sleeping in their tent at the Sandy Point Beach campground in the Shuswap.
Mounties said a cooking pot used as a source of heat is believed to have been the source of the carbon monoxide poisoning.
The pre-teen is now at Sunny Hill Health Centre for Children in Vancouver, where she is undergoing physiotherapy. This was preceded by a harrowing few days in the intensive-care unit and a stay in the children’s ward.
“She was basically on life support for three days,” said Micaela’s father, Chris Walton, who has been by her side since the incident. Walton and Beaurain separated when Micaela was a baby.
READ MORE: B.C. mom who died from carbon monoxide poisoning remembered
Each day has been emotional and sometimes there are setbacks in his daughter’s recovery, Walton said.
“It’s really up and down right now,” he said.
Micaela is working on motor skills, such as brushing her teeth and getting dressed, as well as building back her strength, having been bedridden for weeks, Walton told KTW.
Walton said his daughter did sustain brain damage, but the extent is not known.
“From what I’ve seen so far, it doesn’t look like it’s going to be severe,” he said. “She basically has a slower reaction time to everything right now.”
WATCH: Mother dead, youth in critical condition after carbon monoxide poisoning
Walton said Micaela also has difficulty with her short-term memory.
He said his daughter’s speech and reading abilities are still there, but noted she struggles with her co-ordination, doesn’t have any feeling in her right foot and will sometimes start snapping her fingers without realizing it.
Micaela is able to lift herself up and take a few steps with a walker, but cannot walk yet without assistance, he said.
The end of July is the rough estimate for when Micaela will be released from hospital.
“My main thing is just making sure she’s good and just being here for here, keeping her spirits up and getting her home and trying to get back to normal,” Walton said.
Michael Potestio, Kamloops This Week
