Dr. Di Maio reviewed the autopsy report, EMS records, hospital records, and the Police Investigative File. His report summarizes these records and the incident involving Det. Broehm. According to Dr. Di Maio, “normal values of CO in non-smokers is <2-3%. Elevated levels are manifested by headache, weakness, dizziness and nausea. The half-life of carbon monoxide in room air is said to be 4-6 hrs, and with oxygen at 1 atm 40-80 min. Research by the military indicates that this is simplistic and to a degree incorrect. Short-term exposure exhibits biphasic decreases with an initial half-life of 5.7 +/-1.4 minutes followed by a slower phase of 103 +/- 20.5 minutes.” Dr. Di Maio’s summary of Mary J. McCool’s autopsy report notes that her heart was enlarged and that the heart weighted 380 g at the time of her …show more content…
When compare to the Patriot trap, the McCool independence trap did not appear to produce a measurable amount of carbon dioxide. It is Mr. Kaltofen’s opinion that this trap remains essentially untested, because the test did not provide evidence that this trap was properly functional at the time of testing or at the time of the incident.
Mr. Kaltofen bases his opinion in the following facts: The McCool trap was tested using the McCool propane tank, and the burn test run for 43 minutes. The trap warmed up at the 25 minute mark, and was run for an additional 18 minutes of normal operation. During that time, the Independence McCool trap did not produce a measurable amount of CO2 above background in test configuration. CO2 remained at 0.03 % (300 ppm or non-detectable on a net basis) throughout the test period. When the five gas monitor was checked for CO2 response, it read 0.07% (700 ppm) at the effluent nozzle, well below the steady rate obtained during the testing of the Patriot device which showed 15