University of Wisconsin women’s hockey team and staff suffer carbon monoxide poisoning after victory Friday

University of Wisconsin women’s hockey team and team staff members were tested for carbon monoxide poisoning at their hotel lobby shortly after their Friday night win at Lindenwood in Wentzville, Missouri. Mikayla Johnson, a redshirt senior forward, was at a St. Louis-area hospital for over four hours early Saturday morning because, according to her father and team […]

University of Wisconsin women’s hockey team and team staff members were tested for carbon monoxide poisoning at their hotel lobby shortly after their Friday night win at Lindenwood in Wentzville, Missouri.

Mikayla Johnson, a redshirt senior forward, was at a St. Louis-area hospital for over four hours   early Saturday  morning because, according to her father and team coach Mark Johnson, her carbon monoxide levels were dangerously high.  

Even one of my assistants was throwing up, he said.

Several Badger players were having a difficult time breathing and were experiencing headaches during the competition, but they assumed it was because it was their first game after being on a three-week hiatus.

“It was crazy,” Mikayla Johnson told the Wisconsin State Journal. “I’ve never actually had anything like that where it was like (you were) out of breath and you feel like you’re going to faint. We all thought we were out of shape and we were like, ‘This is so weird. How are we all out of shape?’”

Mark Johnson told the paper that he and his assistant coaches couldn’t understand why the game, which was won by the Badgers 5-1, didn’t have the high energy that team skaters usually perform at.

According to reports, the carbon monoxide level in the arena was measured by firefighters at 200 parts per million, a level at which headaches, fatigue, nausea and dizziness are common with just two to three hours of exposure.

“It was a pretty serious situation,” Mark Johnson told the paper. “We were lucky that we had enough help and the EMS people were very, very good and very professional.”

Mark Johnson said Badgers athletic trainer Denny Helwig was the one who recognized the issue on Friday and acted by getting emergency personnel to the team’s hotel.

Saturday’s second game of the non-conference series at Lindenwood was canceled because of the gas issues at the 750-seat ice rink and won’t be rescheduled.

All available Wisconsin players were back at practice   on Monday   morning. For more information about common symptoms following carbon monoxide poisoning visit our Carbon Monoxide Poisoning page.