I: Steven Cunio

Gas Leaks, near fatalities and how to prevent them

An Email from my friend Dawn on 9th Jan 2004.

Dear All,

I am writing this in the hope I will prevent someone else from experiencing what we’ve just been through, and maybe even help to prevent a fatal outcome.

In early December myself and Nikki nearly died - this was not just a close shave with death, we came very close to not making it. The culprit was carbon monoxide poisoning - a scentless and colourless but strong poison which is produced by gas appliances, and is one of the quickest and discreet killers.

We are the lucky ones, we are only here now because Nikki woke up - however had she not we would both be gonners! Our levels of CO were so high we were only 3% from the lethal amount. Symptoms can vary, but ours were a splitting headache, flu-like symptoms (without the aches), aversion to light and light-headedness, followed in the worse stages by violent sickness and passing out.

We had recently been having a lot of flu-type viruses and dizziness. I managed to crawl across the floor and get an ambulance. The hospital then mis-diagnosed us after we were took into A&E - they thought we had food poisoning or flu! I insisted on a blood test which showed the high levels and we were put on oxygen.

It will take us months to recover because the poison is attached to our red blood cells. Until these die off and are replaced we will both generally feel like crap. We are the lucky ones - nobody usually wakes up from this experience to tell the tale.

There are two steps you need to take to ensure this doesn’t happen to you.

The most important is to ensure that you have yearly safety checks on your gas appliances - when was your cooker, boiler, heater last checked? It’s alright saying it’s expensive, but that’s what our landlord thought and look what happened to us! Call a Corgi-registered gas engineer now and get a quote for a service ans safety check! Now you’ve heard my story you have no comfort in saying ‘it’ll never happen to me’. In addition to this event, my house was also burnt to the ground this year - so don’t let me hear you using that excuse!!

Secondly, you need to install a carbon monoxide detector, most importantly this needs to be one with a British Kite Mark (or similar equivalent standard in other countries). Also - do you know how old your appliances are? Our boiler was 18 years old. The weather contributed to our boiler poisoning us - make sure you have a sealed boiler or this could also happen to you.

Take heed - get safety checked and fit your home with carbon monoxide and smoke alarms. Don’t just read this email and delete - act on it, it could save you and your loved ones.

Please forward this email onto everyone you know.

Take care

Dawn & Nikki