Eric Sedletzky
Contributor
This was not dive related so don't worry that your LDS is putting C0 in your tanks!
I had an incident with C0 poisoning that I would like to share so people can see how dangerous and deadly this gas can be.
Last Friday I was doing some construction work at an auto body shop fabbing up an awning and using their indoor facility and benches to weld together all the steel.
There was a car running in a back corner of the shop for several hours. They were doing some engine diagnostic work on it so that's why it was running. The car idled very quietly and put out no odor so I had forgotten it was even running or it was even there.
There was a door open and a ceiling fan running so I didn't give it much thought that exhaust was going to be a problem. But looking back I don't think this was enough to clear all the fumes. I was mostly working in the building and was around the car at times. Other times I was in the doorway and a little bit outside. I even asked one of the employees if they were concerned about leaving a car running in the building and they said there was plenty of ventilation and they weren't worried about it.
I left the place by noon and felt fine as I was heading up the freeway back to the city where I live. Then a few miles up the freeway I started to notice that I was not feeling right, something was definitely wrong. I was getting nauseous, feeling achy, slightly dizzy, and uncomfortable.
I had to make a few stops on the way to pick up supplies before I went home. Just trying to get what I needed at the store and get to the counter was difficult but I tried to shake it off and continue with what I had to do. I thought I was coming down with something like a bad flu, but I've never encountered this feeling. I've been sick many times but this is not how any sickness comes on that I've ever known.
By the time I got to the second stop before home I was supporting myself on the counter thinking I was going to be sick. The feeling was miserable, almost alarming.
By the time I got home I was really not in good shape at all. I got in the house and drank some water to try and counter the nausea. I took a few tylenol to try and counter the headache I had coming on.
When I was standing in the kitchen I suddenly got the overwhelming feeling that I was going to yak complete with the increased saliva but It didn't happen. Instead I got very light headed and everything started to spin like right prior to blacking out. I grabbed the portable phone in the kitchen and made it to the couch in the living room without passing out and just sat there for a while trying to decide if I should call 911 on myself. Sitting still the light headedness eased a bit and I started to put two and two together as to what was going on. Then it hit me that this was indeed carbon monoxide poisoning from being in that shop with the car running.
I had all the symtoms, light headedness/dizziness, nausea, upset stomach, flu like symtoms, head ache, jittery, apprehensive and uncomfortable not knowing what to do with myself.
The next thing I did was went into my garage once I was stable enough to get up and I breathed off my O2 tank on my welder. I sat there for about 20 minutes and gave myself some O2 therapy which seemed to help.
That night was miserable. Crazy dreams, fitfull night of sleep, achy, sick feeling, horrible.
Long story short, it took a full 36 hours before all the symtoms cleared. It wasen't untill this morning when I woke up that I felt back to normal.
Looking back I probably should have called myself in. I guess in the moment I was more concerned about saving myself some embarassment if it was really nothing. The scary part of C0 poisoning is the delayed onset and the continuing increase in symtoms even after getting out of the environment.
It's not like solvent exposure that once you get out of the environment that the symptoms begin to clear from that point on. Carbon monoxide poisoning spikes later and continues to do it's dirty work for days after.
And it doesn't take much.
Be carefull out there and be aware of the silent killer.
I had an incident with C0 poisoning that I would like to share so people can see how dangerous and deadly this gas can be.
Last Friday I was doing some construction work at an auto body shop fabbing up an awning and using their indoor facility and benches to weld together all the steel.
There was a car running in a back corner of the shop for several hours. They were doing some engine diagnostic work on it so that's why it was running. The car idled very quietly and put out no odor so I had forgotten it was even running or it was even there.
There was a door open and a ceiling fan running so I didn't give it much thought that exhaust was going to be a problem. But looking back I don't think this was enough to clear all the fumes. I was mostly working in the building and was around the car at times. Other times I was in the doorway and a little bit outside. I even asked one of the employees if they were concerned about leaving a car running in the building and they said there was plenty of ventilation and they weren't worried about it.
I left the place by noon and felt fine as I was heading up the freeway back to the city where I live. Then a few miles up the freeway I started to notice that I was not feeling right, something was definitely wrong. I was getting nauseous, feeling achy, slightly dizzy, and uncomfortable.
I had to make a few stops on the way to pick up supplies before I went home. Just trying to get what I needed at the store and get to the counter was difficult but I tried to shake it off and continue with what I had to do. I thought I was coming down with something like a bad flu, but I've never encountered this feeling. I've been sick many times but this is not how any sickness comes on that I've ever known.
By the time I got to the second stop before home I was supporting myself on the counter thinking I was going to be sick. The feeling was miserable, almost alarming.
By the time I got home I was really not in good shape at all. I got in the house and drank some water to try and counter the nausea. I took a few tylenol to try and counter the headache I had coming on.
When I was standing in the kitchen I suddenly got the overwhelming feeling that I was going to yak complete with the increased saliva but It didn't happen. Instead I got very light headed and everything started to spin like right prior to blacking out. I grabbed the portable phone in the kitchen and made it to the couch in the living room without passing out and just sat there for a while trying to decide if I should call 911 on myself. Sitting still the light headedness eased a bit and I started to put two and two together as to what was going on. Then it hit me that this was indeed carbon monoxide poisoning from being in that shop with the car running.
I had all the symtoms, light headedness/dizziness, nausea, upset stomach, flu like symtoms, head ache, jittery, apprehensive and uncomfortable not knowing what to do with myself.
The next thing I did was went into my garage once I was stable enough to get up and I breathed off my O2 tank on my welder. I sat there for about 20 minutes and gave myself some O2 therapy which seemed to help.
That night was miserable. Crazy dreams, fitfull night of sleep, achy, sick feeling, horrible.
Long story short, it took a full 36 hours before all the symtoms cleared. It wasen't untill this morning when I woke up that I felt back to normal.
Looking back I probably should have called myself in. I guess in the moment I was more concerned about saving myself some embarassment if it was really nothing. The scary part of C0 poisoning is the delayed onset and the continuing increase in symtoms even after getting out of the environment.
It's not like solvent exposure that once you get out of the environment that the symptoms begin to clear from that point on. Carbon monoxide poisoning spikes later and continues to do it's dirty work for days after.
And it doesn't take much.
Be carefull out there and be aware of the silent killer.
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