Hotel Heater Victim Goes Home

Ten days after fumes from a hotel’s faulty gas heater sent him into a deep coma, Henry Wong was wheeled out of the hospital Friday into bright sunlight, taking time to answer questions for the media before being whisked away by ambulance to the airport and flown home to Canada.

“I feel really good,” said the 20-year-old volleyball player, sitting up in a gurney, his hands folded calmly across his lap.

Wong squinted in the sunlight as he said he was looking forward to getting plenty of rest at home. When asked what things he looked forward to most, he said he couldn’t wait to “have a banana split.”

His quick, clear responses gave no hint of the seriousness of his condition just a few days earlier.

Doctors at UC San Diego Medical Center diagnosed Wong as “near brain-dead” after he was found unconscious in a room at the Mission Valley Inn on New Year’s Day. His teammate, 21-year-old Cory Louis Korosi, was found with him, already dead from the carbon monoxide emitted by the room’s dirty wall heater.

The doctors predicted that Wong, at best, would require assistance walking, eating and dressing for the rest of his life.

“Henry has made a stunning recovery,” said Dr. Patrick Lyden. “He was a very sick young man when I first saw him. . . . On the 5th (of January), he just became a rocket. His recovery became ballistic.”

The only medication Wong is taking is a drug to prevent seizures, administered only as a precaution, Lyden said. His brain functions appear to be normal, except for a mild slowing of his motor skills, which is typical of carbon monoxide poisoning victims. The impairment would not handicap a normal person, but for someone like Wong, who wants to play intercollegiate sports again, it could be a significant roadblock.

“I am absolutely hoping to play volleyball again,” Wong said. “Right now, I just have to get back into the routine of training and the aspect of taking in the game as best I can. With a lot of hard work and dedication, you can reach anything you want.”

Wong has been described as “a fighter” by his teammates, but he would not concede that was a major factor in his recovery.

“A lot of what happens on Earth is not really in our hands,” he said. “I think God has a lot to do with things.”

Because there are no direct flights from San Diego to Wong’s hometown of Calgary, Shell Canada Ltd. volunteered to fly him home in a corporate jet, along with a nurse, his father and the assistant coach of the men’s volleyball team at Southern Alberta Institute of Technology, said Basil Skodyn, spokesman for the oil company.

Wong’s mother, who was too ill to travel to San Diego, greeted him at the Calgary airport and rode in the ambulance with him to Foothills Hospital, Skodyn said.

Workers at the Mission Valley Inn have corrected violations in 81 of 83 rooms cited by the city Building Inspection Department after the accident, said Michael G. Kemp, deputy director of the department. The hotel will be reinspected Feb. 4 to see if all the violations have been corrected, he said.

The district attorney’s office does not plan to press criminal charges against the hotel owners, said Steven J. Casey, special assistant to the district attorney.

A City Council committee will hold a hearing Wednesday to address the problem of carbon monoxide poisoning from wall heaters.