Teen Still Critically Ill From Carbon Monoxide

Four Other Virginia Tech Students Improving After Hospital Treatment

Four Virginia Tech students hospitalized for severe carbon monoxide poisoning on the eve of the new school year were in improved condition yesterday, but a 19-year-old from Ashburn remained critically ill, officials said.

The carbon monoxide scare sent another jolt through the Blacksburg campus as it seeks to recover from the April 16 massacre of 32 students and faculty members by a student gunman who also killed himself. Nearly two dozen people were taken to hospitals Sunday for treatment after elevated levels of the deadly gas were detected in their off-campus apartment complex.

The student in the most danger appeared to be Kristin L. Julia, who was still listed in critical condition at the University of Virginia's hospital in Charlottesville. However, a relative said in a brief telephone interview that she appeared to be responding to a doctor's voice yesterday morning.

By afternoon, doctors treating the four other most serious cases -- all 19-year-old female students -- reported encouraging developments.

At Duke University Medical Center in Durham, N.C., three students were listed in good condition and were expected to be released soon after undergoing oxygen-enriching treatment in a hyperbaric chamber: Elizabeth A. Burgin of Ashburn, Carolyn Ann Dorman of Potomac and Nichole M. Howarth of Chesterfield, Va. "They are all doing great, and they are in great condition," said Bret Stolp, their doctor.

At the U-Va. hospital, the condition of Kirsten W. Halik of Vienna was upgraded to serious from critical, said hospital spokeswoman Megan Rowe. The hospital declined to elaborate on Halik's or Julia's treatment, at the request of their families.

The poisoning incident unfolded Sunday morning after residents in one unit of the Collegiate Suites complex awoke feeling dizzy and nauseated. They called the gas company, and an inspection revealed heightened levels of carbon monoxide. Blacksburg police said the leak appeared to have originated in Apartment F, where the five women lived.

Stolp said that the three Duke patients were conscious when they arrived at the Durham hospital Sunday night but that they complained of feeling confused and weak and had trouble with memory and walking. He said that after their first treatment in the chamber Sunday night, they told him they felt like "a fog had been lifted."

The hyperbaric chamber at Duke pushes pressurized oxygen into tissues and blood. Stolp said the students had the last of three treatments in the chamber yesterday. "They all look very good right now and were treated in a very prompt fashion, and all of that works in their favor," Stolp said of the long-term prognosis.

The Collegiate Suites management did not return calls yesterday.

A preliminary investigation Sunday pointed to a malfunctioning water heater, but Blacksburg police said yesterday they would continue to review the incident. "If we can recreate it, we will have an idea how it got that way," Capt. Bruce Bradbery said.

Bradbery said authorities detected 500 parts per million of carbon monoxide in the air, a potentially fatal amount, in the apartment, where doors had been shut and windows closed. Chris Holstege, medical director of U-Va.'s Blue Ridge Poison Center, said studies have shown that is the highest amount of carbon monoxide found when a smoker inhales a cigarette.

"If you were constantly breathing in and out of that cigarette, that is comparable," Holstege said.

Rachael Evans, a junior who helped alert others in the complex and was one of 23 hospitalized, said none of the apartments had a carbon monoxide detector. After calling her father, she said, "He went and bought one right away."

Staff writers Anita Kumar in Charlottesville and Theresa Vargas in Blacksburg and staff researcher Meg Smith contributed to this report.