Authorities said on Thursday that a three-year-old boy died from accidental carbon monoxide poisoning after taking a nap in the back of his father’s faulty van.
Lorne Johnson Jr’s father had been running errands on New Year’s Day when Lorne told his father he felt tired and laid down for a nap in the backseat.
When his father returned, he found Lorne unresponsive, with vomit around his mouth. He called 911 and attempted to revive the young boy, but Lorne died after being rushed to Cleveland’s University Hospitals Rainbow Babies and Children’s Hospital.
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The father said that he had just purchased the van a few months ago, not knowing that it was missing a crucial component. The van didn’t have a catalytic converter, which converts toxic gases from the exhaust.
“I’m OK now but I don’t think I’ll ever be OK,” the emotional father told WOIO. “If I thought for any second I was endangering any one of my children I would never have got that vehicle.”
He has since created a Go Fund Me to cover his son’s funeral costs.
