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Carbon Monoxide Survival Stories
Just the flu
My family and I just had an incredibly scary experience with Carbon Monoxide. One evening around 9 pm my husband started vomiting. I thought it was just maybe a stomach virus. Around 11 pm I was getting ready to go to bed. As I went to lay down I became very nauseous and lightheaded. As I got up I felt as though my heart was beating funny and I got a cold feeling throughout my body. I immediately got out of bed and went online to check what the symptoms are for Carbon Monoxide poisoning. It turned out we had exactly what the symptoms were. So I got my 2 year old son out of bed and told my husband to get the dogs and to get out of that house. We arrived at my mom's house and I called 911. The fire department went to my home and told us they do not know how we survived. They said there is supposed to be 28% oxygen in your home, we had 3.2%. I don't know what made me think that it was Carbon Monoxide poisoning that we were experiencing but I am so glad we got out of the house. Today is the first day that we are back in. We got a new furnace and the chimney has been completely fixed. We also have a Carbon Monoxide detector as well. What I want to know is, I have been experiencing severe panic attacks. I just want to know if they will go away as I am more comfortable with being in my home or is this possibly a long term effect of being in the Carbon Monoxide? Thank you so much. Please everyone get a Carbon Monoxide detector. They will save your life.
We had a detector but it wasn't installed
My youngest son awoke around 12 a.m. screaming. I asked him what was wrong, but being autistic, he could not tell me. I brought him into the bathroom and he hesitated before urinating therefore I assumed he might be starting a urinary infection. He awoke me another 2 times, same screaming, same procedure. I was concerned but he went right back to sleep. My husband awoke around 2:30 a.m. complaining of nausea and dizziness. He and I both assumed he was having flu symptoms as it is rampant at this time of year. He got up, opened the front door for fresh air and went back to bed. When I awoke at 6:15 a.m., I did not feel ill. However the minute I sat up in bed, my head felt like it was shattering and I was very dizzy. I made it to the bathroom and put cold water on my face. My oldest son woke up crying: ''Mom, I didn't sleep all night. My head feels like it's going 2 split in half!'' I immediately woke my middle son and asked him if he had a headache. He sat up moaning and crying. I ran as fast as I could, opened all the outside doors, awoke my youngest child and my husband. I then called 911 and proceeded to tell them I suspected we were being poisoned by Carbon Monoxide. We were told to get out of the house immediately. Within 5 minutes, with all of us huddled outside, firefighters and paramedics arrived. We were immediately put into the ambulance and given pure oxygen. We were lucky as the readings upstairs were so high we were told we should not even have been able to stand. The senior firefighter told me that this was the highest reading they had ever seen in our city!
Where was our Carbon Monoxide detector, you ask? It was put away in a closet because my autistic son was always playing with it! What a stupid thing to do. Please, if you have natural gas in your home, install a Carbon Monoxide detector immediately. It could mean the difference between life and death!
Using a generator during a power outage
Last winter we had a severe ice and snow storms, over 84,000 homes had no power. My best friend was in the process of selling her home and her power was out, her basement was also flooded and an Inspector was coming and the house had to be in ship shape. On Friday she called me to ask if I could loan her my
generator and help her get the water cleaned up in the basement. She is my best friend, so of course, I was right there to help her out. We hooked up the generator in the garage, we placed it in the side door leaving the door open for ventilation. We had been working in the basement for about 5 hours, when the power finally came on - we turned the generator off and turned the heat on. The CO detector had been disabled due to the power outage. We had been working in the crawl space of her basement, we were exhausted and light headed, but we had been working hard, and neither one of us was willing to say they were too tired or lightheaded to stop working - we are both very stubborn females! I was feeling sick to my stomach, light headed and when she spoke to me - it sounded like she was talking under water....... We were both laying on the cold, muddy cement floor and we heard the beeping start from the CO Detector - I believe that if that alarm had not gone off - the inspector would have found us both dead in the crawl space of her basement. As we got outside, we talked about what each other had been feeling - light headed, nauseated, distorted sound, heart palpitations, and feeling so very tired......... If the power had not come on and the CO alarm go off, I don't think either of us would have said a word, just kept working and maybe died there on the cold cement floor. Carbon Monoxide CAN kill you - but a CO Detector saved our lives.
Our mistake? When we set up the generator, we thought we were ventilated enough by having the side door open, but with a wind blowing the exhaust into the garage and the inside door open because of the extension cords, we nearly died from the exhaust. If you are going to use a generator - be sure that it is well ventilated and have a battery back up on your CO Detector. We never smelled a thing and it was almost too late for us.
My family and I just had an incredibly scary experience with Carbon Monoxide. One evening around 9 pm my husband started vomiting. I thought it was just maybe a stomach virus. Around 11 pm I was getting ready to go to bed. As I went to lay down I became very nauseous and lightheaded. As I got up I felt as though my heart was beating funny and I got a cold feeling throughout my body. I immediately got out of bed and went online to check what the symptoms are for Carbon Monoxide poisoning. It turned out we had exactly what the symptoms were. So I got my 2 year old son out of bed and told my husband to get the dogs and to get out of that house. We arrived at my mom's house and I called 911. The fire department went to my home and told us they do not know how we survived. They said there is supposed to be 28% oxygen in your home, we had 3.2%. I don't know what made me think that it was Carbon Monoxide poisoning that we were experiencing but I am so glad we got out of the house. Today is the first day that we are back in. We got a new furnace and the chimney has been completely fixed. We also have a Carbon Monoxide detector as well. What I want to know is, I have been experiencing severe panic attacks. I just want to know if they will go away as I am more comfortable with being in my home or is this possibly a long term effect of being in the Carbon Monoxide? Thank you so much. Please everyone get a Carbon Monoxide detector. They will save your life.
We had a detector but it wasn't installed
My youngest son awoke around 12 a.m. screaming. I asked him what was wrong, but being autistic, he could not tell me. I brought him into the bathroom and he hesitated before urinating therefore I assumed he might be starting a urinary infection. He awoke me another 2 times, same screaming, same procedure. I was concerned but he went right back to sleep. My husband awoke around 2:30 a.m. complaining of nausea and dizziness. He and I both assumed he was having flu symptoms as it is rampant at this time of year. He got up, opened the front door for fresh air and went back to bed. When I awoke at 6:15 a.m., I did not feel ill. However the minute I sat up in bed, my head felt like it was shattering and I was very dizzy. I made it to the bathroom and put cold water on my face. My oldest son woke up crying: ''Mom, I didn't sleep all night. My head feels like it's going 2 split in half!'' I immediately woke my middle son and asked him if he had a headache. He sat up moaning and crying. I ran as fast as I could, opened all the outside doors, awoke my youngest child and my husband. I then called 911 and proceeded to tell them I suspected we were being poisoned by Carbon Monoxide. We were told to get out of the house immediately. Within 5 minutes, with all of us huddled outside, firefighters and paramedics arrived. We were immediately put into the ambulance and given pure oxygen. We were lucky as the readings upstairs were so high we were told we should not even have been able to stand. The senior firefighter told me that this was the highest reading they had ever seen in our city!
Where was our Carbon Monoxide detector, you ask? It was put away in a closet because my autistic son was always playing with it! What a stupid thing to do. Please, if you have natural gas in your home, install a Carbon Monoxide detector immediately. It could mean the difference between life and death!
Using a generator during a power outage
Last winter we had a severe ice and snow storms, over 84,000 homes had no power. My best friend was in the process of selling her home and her power was out, her basement was also flooded and an Inspector was coming and the house had to be in ship shape. On Friday she called me to ask if I could loan her my
generator and help her get the water cleaned up in the basement. She is my best friend, so of course, I was right there to help her out. We hooked up the generator in the garage, we placed it in the side door leaving the door open for ventilation. We had been working in the basement for about 5 hours, when the power finally came on - we turned the generator off and turned the heat on. The CO detector had been disabled due to the power outage. We had been working in the crawl space of her basement, we were exhausted and light headed, but we had been working hard, and neither one of us was willing to say they were too tired or lightheaded to stop working - we are both very stubborn females! I was feeling sick to my stomach, light headed and when she spoke to me - it sounded like she was talking under water....... We were both laying on the cold, muddy cement floor and we heard the beeping start from the CO Detector - I believe that if that alarm had not gone off - the inspector would have found us both dead in the crawl space of her basement. As we got outside, we talked about what each other had been feeling - light headed, nauseated, distorted sound, heart palpitations, and feeling so very tired......... If the power had not come on and the CO alarm go off, I don't think either of us would have said a word, just kept working and maybe died there on the cold cement floor. Carbon Monoxide CAN kill you - but a CO Detector saved our lives.
Our mistake? When we set up the generator, we thought we were ventilated enough by having the side door open, but with a wind blowing the exhaust into the garage and the inside door open because of the extension cords, we nearly died from the exhaust. If you are going to use a generator - be sure that it is well ventilated and have a battery back up on your CO Detector. We never smelled a thing and it was almost too late for us.