Four in a car faints due to excessive Freon inhalation
COTABATO CITY --- Four persons nearly died of prolonged Freon refrigerant inhalation due to a defective car air-conditioner in a peculiar incident Monday in Montawal town in Maguindanao.
The spouses Jayson and Vanessa Escaner and their companions, Mary Jane Barcenilla and Juanito Tolmia, were found unconscious inside a red Toyota Vios car, bearing license plates POH 407, along a stretch of a highway in Barangay Tunggol, Montawal.
Investigators found that Escaner, who was driving the car, managed to pull over while he and his companions fainted one after another.
They were resuscitated by attending physicians in a hospital in Kabacan town in North Cotabato where members of the local police and emergency responders from the Montawal Municipal Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Office, or MDRRMO.
Balumol Cadiding of Montawal’s MDRRMO said Tuesday all four have been pronounced out of danger by attending doctors on Tuesday afternoon.
Freon inhalation can cause asphyxia, or respiratory arrest.
The victims, all residents of Barangay Anonang in Midsayap town in North Cotabato, were en route to Tacurong City to attend a family gathering when they passed out while motoring through Datu Montawal, located in the second district of Maguindanao.