MANTUA, Ohio (WJW) — A Mantua, Ohio couple is celebrating a particularly thankful Thanksgiving after an Amazon Alexa device helped save the husband’s life from carbon monoxide poisoning this week.
Bruce Chabra credits the smart speaker with contacting his wife Jill when he became disoriented while working in his basement near a malfunctioning propane heater.
The incident occurred Tuesday afternoon while Bruce was working on cellar doors. He was using a propane heater that began emitting dangerously high levels of carbon monoxide.
“I realized there was something wrong,” Bruce told Nexstar’s FOX 8 News.
Bruce, who suffers from chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, or COPD, initially tried his inhaler, but felt increasingly nauseated and disoriented. Unable to locate his cell phone, he yelled to their Amazon Alexa device to call his wife at her business.
Jill received three confusing voicemail messages from different numbers, all containing only the sounds of her husband’s attempts to communicate with Alexa.
“I never even thought about calling 911,” Bruce explained. “She’s my 911. I just thought about getting a hold of her and telling her what’s going on so she could say, ‘Do this,’ or ‘Do that.’”
Luckily, Jill was on her lunch break and checked her phone. Confused by the voicemails and unable to reach Bruce on his cell, she first called a neighbor and then called 911.
She said the timing of it all was very convenient. When she got home, firefighters wouldn’t let them stay inside the house because of how dangerously high the carbon monoxide levels were.
“I am so thankful,” Jill said. “I just can’t believe things worked out the way they did because if they hadn’t worked out this way, he would not be here today.”
“Yeah, it would’ve been a different Thanksgiving,” Bruce agreed.
The Chabras told Nexstar’s FOX 8 News they don’t have carbon monoxide detectors in their home because it is all electric. They don’t even have a furnace. Now, they plan to get rid of the propane heaters in the basement and get electric heaters for down there.
In the meantime, they want people to know about this “remarkable” story. Jill said she wasn’t even aware that the Alexa could make outgoing calls.
Bruce, who doesn’t have much memory of it all, explained that he doesn’t remember what went through his head and how he thought to call out to Alexa for help, but he has used it in the past to call his own phone when he can’t locate it.
“Alexa truly saved his life, and I think people out there do not know Alexa can do that,” Jill said, urging others to be aware of the device’s capabilities. “If it wasn’t for Alexa reaching me three or four times on my cell phone, I would’ve came home and he would’ve been in the basement or in the living room not here, not with us.”