impaired 復習

　米国ウィスコンシン州で、一酸化炭素中毒で死にかけたところを猫が起こしてくれたおかげで命拾いをしたという記事からです。

Hero cat named Grace saved couple from carbon monoxide poisoning

Kevin and Annette Shanahan are lucky to be alive.

One night last month Annette, of Reedsburg, Wisconsin, woke up in tremendous pain.

“I had gotten up because I thought I was having a heart attack," she told ABC News. “You’re so fuzzy you can’t make a reasonable thought. So I had gotten up and gotten to the chair in the bedroom and I thought I was going to die. I wasn’t in the presence of mind to even tell my husband.”

Their cat Grace, or Gracie as they’ve affectionately nicknamed their 8-year-old Maine Coon mix, began rattling their bedroom door with her paw.

Annette said she had fallen asleep in the chair and only woke up because of her persistent kitty.

“Gracie started pounding at the door. Pounding loud. She was really pounding,” she recalled. “Our house is 120 years old so the door rattles.”

Her husband eventually heard the loud sounds and realized he wasn’t feeling well either.

“When he stood up he realized something was wrong. He realized he was fuzzy and not right also,” said Annette. “My husband went and looked to see if our children were home. But I couldn’t stand up. I was thinking in my head I was having a heart attack. I slid down on my side down the stairs and he had gotten my cellphone to call our children to find out where they were.”

The couple’s son could immediately tell something was wrong since Kevin’s speech was so impaired and erratic.

“My son started coming here and he got here before the police,” said Annette. “Then my husband handed me the phone and I dialed 911. We didn’t have the presence of mind to think to get out of the house. All I got out was our address. I said, ‘I can’t breathe’ and kept repeating our address.”

http://abcnews.go.com/Lifestyle/hero-cat-named-grace-saved-couple-carbon-monoxide/story?id=46169752

　取り上げる単語は"impair"です。『ジーニアス英和辞典』第４版（大修館）で調べてみると、「（力、価値、質、量など）を減じる、弱める、悪くする、（健康など）を害する、損なう」という意味があり、ここでは"ed"が付いて形容詞で使われています。
　今回の記事では、一酸化炭素を吸ってしまい、意識がもうろうとしている中、やっとの思いで電話をかけたときの状況を表しており、「呂律が回ってない」と表現できるかと思います。
　LDOCEでは、"to damage something or make it not as good as it should be"と表現されています。(Akim)