- Chase, 8, and Tyler, 6, Robinson died from carbon monoxide poisoning in 2010
- Their mum Vanessa Robinson tirelessly raised awareness about gas heaters
- Eleven years on she cannot turn on her own gas heater because her PTSD
- She spoke as part of a Climate Council campaign about the dangers of using gas
A mother has shared in devastating detail how her sons were poisoned by a faulty heater while she slept with them.
Tyler and Chase Robinson, aged 6 and 8 respectively, died from carbon monoxide poisoning in the family home at Mooroopna, Victoria on May 30, 2010 while sleeping with their mum, Vanessa Robinson.
Her last memory of the boys was waking to them crying in the night before she passed out.
Tyler, 6, and Chase, 8, died from carbon monoxide poisoning from a gas heater that was left on at their home
Vanessa and Scott Robinson in a scene from a 2015 EnergySafe Victoria video about the dangers of carbon monoxide poisoning
‘They were with me in my bed, I think about that at times,’ Ms Robinson, now 40 and living in Melbourne, told Daily Mail Australia.
‘I remember them crying in the night. I don’t think that they went gently.
‘I was right there and I couldn’t save them.
‘That was my entire life, gone in one night. I was shattered. I will never get over my boys.’
Ms Robinson was going in and out of consciousness and only survived because she was woken up by the persistent knocking of the boys’ father – her ex, Scott.
Vanessa Robinson remembers her two sons crying during the night they died
Ms Robinson says she cannot turn on the gas heater in her rented home 11 years after the tragedy that destroyed her family
The poisoning that took the boys’ lives also left their mother seriously ill ‘for a very long time’
After she struggled to the door, it became clear a tragedy had occurred.
Because Ms Robinson was also poisoned by the same heater, she was ‘very sick for a long time’.
She suffered acute kidney failure for a month after the accident and long-term memory and nerve damage that resulted in her almost losing an arm.
‘Carbon monoxide patients often lose limbs,’ she said.
‘My left arm was trapped underneath me, so I have nerve damage and shoulder damage that will never get better.
‘I stopped breathing – that’s what carbon monoxide does, it suffocates you to death. My memory is shot to pieces.
‘I got PTSD too. That doesn’t go away.’
The Victorian coroner later found that a build-up of soot, dust and lint in the Robinsons’ heater prevented oxygen getting in, and created a dangerously high level of carbon monoxide.
Ms Robinson’s landlords, Jeffrey and Tracey Watt, had cleaned or serviced the heater for five years, but the coroner found they could not have known of the problems with the heater.
An unnamed tradesman was found to have not performed proper checks on the heater in 2004, but he wasn’t charged.
Ms Robinson describes coping with the deaths of Chase and Tyler by throwing herself into raising awareness about the dangers of gas heaters.
She set up the Chase and Tyler Foundation in 2010.
‘It was my coping strategy, but I wanted to make a difference,’ she said.
‘Some really great, amazing things have come out of that. We worked with government and industry and raised awareness in Australia and internationally.’
Her foundation unsuccessfully pushed for compulsory checking and servicing of heaters and mandatory carbon monoxide alarms at a national level, which flowed to improved tenancy regulations at Victorian state level.
Partly because of her work – and her terrible losses – gas heater safety checks are now widely recommended in every state every two years.
Most importantly, she has been told many times that her advocacy work helped people who were ‘very close to serious incidents and long-term poisoning’.
Today she works as a receptionist/manager in a private hospital and rents a home in inner Melbourne.
On Thursday, Ms Robinson was part of a report released by the Climate Council which highlights the many health dangers of using gas in the home.
The report claimed that although most states and territories have banned unflued gas heaters in schools because they release pollutants directly into the classroom, the majority of New South Wales schools still use them.
Asthma was also a major focus of the report, which claimed that a child living with gas cooking in the home faces a comparable risk of asthma to a child living with household cigarette smoke.
‘We need to think about where we are going in the future in terms of our fuels, but also because there a lot safer fuel options out there to use at home,’ Ms Robinson said.
Gas is still commonly used for heating and cooking in Australia – sometimes in unsafe ways
After running nine annual Carbon Monoxide Awareness Weeks, she plans to wind down her foundation after this month.
‘I’m tired. It’s been a long time, I wasn’t particularly great towards myself,’ she explained.
Ms Robinson told Daily Mail Australia that she still cannot switch on the gas heater in her rented Melbourne home.
‘It’s a similar model to what killed my children, I can’t use it.
‘Not only does it give me panic attacks, it’s too much of a safety risk.’
She still regularly sees unflued heaters in cafes and restaurants and no longer points out the danger.
‘It’s terrifying to think of the danger. It might be safe and the next minute it could be emitting dangerous levels of carbon monoxide to you and your family.
‘But the warning is better coming from government than some crazy lady off the street.
‘There is still a lot of work to be done, but I need to concentrate on myself.’
