Gas-tronomically Bad Accidents
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by: Sarah Maple
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Word Count: 480
A good friend called me up yesterday to say that she was feeling really ill. She wanted me to pick her up some flu tablets from the supermarket and bring them round to her house after I had finished work as she felt too ill to get them herself. I went over right away as she sounded so sick.
When I got to the house I told my friend to switch on the fire because it was freezing. Her face dropped.
The idiot had been sat in the house for three days getting sicker and sicker because she had been breathing in gas! After turning the fire on to keep warm on Wednesday afternoon she had forgotten to turn it off properly again leaving the gas pouring slowly out. Thank goodness her mum (who was on holiday) forbid her to smoke in the house or there would have been no house and no daughter left when she got back. I had saved her daughter from serious poisoning, possibly even death and her home insurance company from a rather large payout.
My friend had been sent home from work that day because she had started feeling dizzy and throwing up. She had got home and spent the rest of the afternoon on the sofa watching DVD’s trying to stop herself from passing out, assuming that she was just coming down with a bad case of flu. I dread to think what could have happened if she hadn’t called me when she did.
According to the Mail online over 50 people die each year as a result of accidental carbon monoxide poisoning, a small number considering the amount of people who use gas appliances. (http://www.mailonsunday.co.uk/health/article-490637/Could-gas-poisoning-making-ill.html) It’s not a risk that I have ever really thought about although I have made similar mistakes before. I have before left the gas on after I had finished cooking, thankfully one of my housemates spotted what I had done in about two minutes so the damage was not too bad. If I had been home alone the story could have ended differently.
I have now got carbon monoxide detectors in the rooms of my house that have gas appliances. Significant damage can be done to your body through carbon monoxide poisoning without the risk of igniting the gas being high. According to Wikipedia, gradual poisoning over days weeks months or years can result in headaches, vertigo and flu like symptoms followed by damage to the central nervous system, heart damage and death (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carbon_monoxide_poisoning) Carbon monoxide is especially dangerous as it is odourless, tasteless and colourless which makes it hard to be detected.
After researching the subject I now find that I am overly paranoid about gas poisoning and have started to check the oven like I have obsessive compulsive disorder. I think I’m going to switch to electric!
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Look for home insurance at http://www.confused.com/home-insurance
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