TOLEDO, Ohio — A Toledo mother is mourning an unimaginable loss after carbon monoxide poisoning claimed the lives of her four young children and their grandmother.
On Friday, Adriana Coleman made the agonizing decision to remove her 4-year-old son from life support.
Coleman is now grieving her children — Liberty, Storm, Legacy and Stone — along with their grandmother, 36-year-old Candace McAllister.
“She had a great personality. She was definitely the life of the party,” Coleman said.
The tragedy unfolded Wednesday in the 300 block of Phillips Avenue, near Detroit Avenue.
Investigators said the family was inside a vehicle waiting for assistance with a flat tire when carbon monoxide began filling the car.
Toledo’s fire chief said the children’s father called 911 after he arrived to help and found the family unresponsive.
“Pray for his sanity a lot more than anything else cause my husband is definitely going through it,” Coleman said.
The mother says investigators told her the carbon monoxide level inside that car was extreme.
“When they put their meter in the car to test the carbon monoxide level in there, the level was five times the lethal limit,” Coleman said.
She made the decision to take Legacy, also known as Ace, off life support.
“I’m going to miss them yelling, and screaming, and laughing. There wasn’t a day that I was not without my kids. Never,” she said.
Now, a mother who lived for her four kids is trying to find strength.
“Everything I did was for about with my kids. I don’t- it seems so surreal now because life has stopped for me right now cause I’m here but I have no idea what’s going to happen after I walk out these hospital doors… I just want my babies,” Coleman said.
An account has been set up to help pay for funeral expenses, as the family had no life insurance.
