Silent Killer
We could have died...
Trevor Brookes, pictured left, a journalist with the Northern Echo, tells how he and his girlfriend nearly became victims of the silent killer... on Saturday
I KNEW something was seriously wrong when my girlfriend couldn't finish her glass of wine.
I, too, had suffered from a week of intense headaches. Two empty boxes of painkillers sat as testament by the kettle.
Then, I thought back to a conversation during a visit to the pub a few days earlier.
"You might have carbon monoxide poisoning, mate," said Andy, a work colleague, as we chatted over a pint.
At the time, I dismissed his theory for my headaches. Our gas fire had been disconnected, leaving only the boiler and central heating, which appeared to be working fine.
Fast forward to Saturday night's build-up to the rugby World Cup semi-final, between England and France.
My headache was worse than ever and, like the others before it, had become worse the longer I stayed in the house.
My girlfriend returned home from work. She thought she might be ill because she had fallen asleep in the front room the past two nights.
I poured her a glass of red wine - half in sympathy and half in an effort to persuade her that watching sport would be a great way to spend the evening. She failed to finish it, complaining of a dry mouth and feeling sickly.
I told her what Andy had said and she joked that carbon monoxide poisoning had recently been on TV soap Hollyoaks.
And suddenly it struck us that a faulty heating system could be the cause of our conditions.
About 30 minutes later, a gas engineer arrived and immediately switched off the mains, handing us an electric heater to keep warm. He said we were slowly being poisoned.
We were lucky. In the past year, 42 people have died because of carbon monoxide. We could have slipped into a deep slumber in front of the television that night and never woken up.
Cheers Andy, I owe you one.
9:00am Tuesday 16th October 2007
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