Mother grieves after 11-year-old son killed by carbon monoxide poisoning, husband in hospital

A mother is grieving after a carbon monoxide incident killed her 11-year-old son and put her husband in hospital in critical condition.

Marina Hills's son Henry Losco died on Dec. 19 in their apartment at 1827 Albert St. in Regina, after carbon monoxide leaked in the building while maintenance work was being done. Her husband Sergio Losco survived but is still in hospital.

"I used to tell my son, 'You are loved and cherished every day of your life,'” she said. "Then I would say, 'Do you know how much I love you?' And he would say, 'To the moon and back times a million,' and I said, 'Yep.' 

"He was my best friend.”

Hills said she started a new job just two weeks ago, and went to work as usual that day. She tried calling home in the afternoon and there was no answer, but she assumed they were busy.

When she got off work and returned home, she said she walked into the apartment and called out for help with the turkey she was carrying, but it was quiet.

Hills walked into the kitchen and saw her husband lying on the floor. She said at first, she thought he had suffered a stroke, and she started yelling for help. 

“His eyes were wide, but he was unconscious. They were bulging out of his head," she said.

Then Hills realized Henry wasn't responding, and she ran out of the kitchen into the bedroom, where she found her son, also unconscious. She said that's when she realized it could be a gas leak, and she pulled her son out of the apartment and screamed for help. A neighbour came to help her and called 911.

Hills ran back into her apartment to get her husband out. 

"At first, I couldn’t move him … but I was able to drag him out of there with all my might. I got him out the door and I saw that he was still breathing,” she said. "I ran back over to my son and 911 said to put the phone by Henry's mouth to see if he is breathing."

"I said, 'He's not. There's nothing.'” 

She tried resuscitating Henry, until first responders arrived and took over. She said she was sitting on the floor when someone came over and told her that her son was dead, and they were taking her husband to the hospital.

When the coroner allowed her later that night to return to where her son was, she said she ran to him and started kissing him.