Mere minutes between life and death

Published Feb. 18, 2015
By Senior Airman Rebecca Blossom
62nd Airlift Wing Public Affairs

JOINT BASE LEWIS-MCCHORD, Wash. -- As storms brewed throughout northern California Feb. 7, the community of Hiouchi in Del Norte County went dark. Whole trees and large branches were thrown by the wind into power lines and transformers, and more than 5,600 people in Del Norte lost power.

One of those people was Joe Akin, a retired California state peace officer and Army veteran. As emergency personnel worked to return power to the citizens of Del Norte, Akin began to notice a more personal issue.

"I believed I was suffering from some sort of respiratory, heart, or other ailment," he said.

Akin sent a text message requesting assistance to a relative of Staff Sgt. Wade Owen, 627th Security Forces Squadron deputy Raven program manager, who was with family near Hiouchi on vacation.

Due to his incapacitated condition, Akin's text wasn't clear, and created confusion about where he was and what was wrong with him.

"He sent a text to my mother-in-law with random characters that didn't make sense, but the numbers 9-1-1 were in it, so I knew something was wrong," said Owen.

Owen took it upon himself to drive ten miles and check Akin's residence.

"His front door has glass panes in it. I looked inside, but the power was out," said Owen. "At first, it looked like there was just a flannel shirt on the ground, and I almost left. Then I kind of looked at it a little closer, and I could see a head. He was lying face down."

As his wife called emergency services, Owen kicked in the door.

"I thought he was dead at first," said Owen. "I went over to check his vitals and then I saw him take a breath."

That was when his wife brought the smell of exhaust to his attention.

"I didn't even smell the gas at first," said Owen.

Akin's backup generator, which he was using during the power outage, wasn't ventilated properly and the home was filled with exhaust fumes and carbon monoxide, a colorless, odorless, tasteless, and extremely toxic gas.

"That's when I noticed it was bad," he said. "I could actually see the cloud of exhaust in the house."

Owen dragged the 6-foot-1-inch, 300 pound Akin out of the house.

"Once outside, he continually assessed and monitored my condition, simultaneously attempting to elicit a response from me until Emergency Services arrived and transported me to a higher level of care," said Akin. "It was later determined that I had been exposed to a potentially lethal dose of carbon monoxide."

Owen also suffered some minor exposure effects of the gas.

"Joe is a big guy, and after I moved him a little I noticed it was getting hard for me to breathe," said Owen. "By that time it was pretty bad, I was even getting a little light-headed from breathing heavily while carrying him."

Luckily, the effects were short term for Owen.

Akin, however, having spent a considerable amount of time exposed to the gas, required a constant flow of oxygen and an overnight stay in the intensive care unit of a local hospital.

"It was the opinion of medical professionals that mere minutes stood between me and certain death," Akin said.

Akin has fully recovered from the incident, and has nothing but praise for the man who saved his life.

"The fact that I am here today can only be attributed to the swift actions and bravery of Staff Sergeant Wade Owen," he said.