A local family is still coming to grips with losing their 12-year-old son due to carbon monoxide poisoning last weekend.

Elisha Schlicter spoke publicly today for the first time since her son Trai passed away on February 4th.

Schlichter was joined by her wife Jayla Thompson, her sisters and other members of the family.

The family described the energetic spirit that Trai brought to everyone around him.

"He was very adventurous, he loved doing so much outdoors," says Schlicter, "He almost drowned when he was little and he just thrived through that and became a high diver, he loved swimming so much."

Thompson describes what happened that Sunday morning when she discovered something wasn't right. She explained that she went to feed her cats and they were not moving. Later when they went to check on Trai, they found him unresponsive and quickly left the apartment to seek medical help.

Schlicter and Thompson say that a previous repair led to the release of carbon monoxide to the apartment.

"We had issues with our hot water tank previous to the incident. Our landlord brought a plumber in who said that he fixed it, but didn't make us aware that the pipe that was broken was leaking carbon monoxide."

The couple says they plan to find a new place soon because the memories of that apartment are too much to bear. They've only been in Airdrie for nearly three months.

One of the ways that the family has been able to cope is through the support of the community around them.

"It's a beautiful community. We moved here but we didn't expect the amount of outpour. It was really overwhelming," says Schlicter.

In the end, they hope that a situation like this never happens to another family.

"We have a petition going that my surrogate sisters set up to make it mandatory in the Province of Alberta because in Ontario it is mandatory. I hope that it wasn't because of a similar incident. Going forth we just hope that that can be changed so that no one ever has to lose anyone."

The petition can be found at Change.org

 

Questions, comments or story ideas? Email us at news@discoverairdrie.com