Carbon Monoxide poisoning!

C_Mababejive

I think we need to break this down a bit....

1) What evidence do you have that you have ingested Carbon Monoxide? For example, have you attended a hospital immediately after exposure for a blood Gas Analysis which has confirmed your exposure?


2) Has a British Standard Approved atmospheric analysis been carried out in your home with the appliance in operation?

3) Has a GSR Engineer examined the boiler and if so,has a situation been identified which could have brought about the release of noxious effluvia from your gas boiler?

4) If so,has the situation been made right/repaired/made safe?

5)Has a report of CO poisoning been made to HSE under the RIDDOR procedures?

jenthis

We attened A and E and I have a copy of the discharge letters from A and E to my GP for my son, my daugter, my partner and myself. The letter states that we were treated for accidental carbon monoxide poisoning.

I contacted my boiler manufacturer which is INTERGAS as EON said they could not help until HSE said they could due to a RIDDOR being filled.
INTERGAS arranged for one of their gas safe engineers to come and diagnose the problem. The engineer looked at the boiler and the positioning of the flue. He advised that the flue should not be directly underneath another opening ( which it was under the cooker extracter fan opening) He said the flue, by law, had to be so far away from another opening. He said that when any carbon monoxide was made by the boiler it was being dragged straigh back in.Although the carbon monoxide would have been diluted and probably never fatal, it would have caused the sysptoms we described.

We have now paid for a builder to block up the opening for the cooker extractor fan but obviously can no longer use the fan.

I have filled in a form sent by health and safetly and this has been sent back to them.

Regards

kaya

Read the terms of your policy for servicing the boiler by EON , does it say that they are responsible for checking for leaks and any mess made by the installers? I recently paid the manufacturer of my boiler to do a service and they didn't check the flue or do any kind of flue gas analysis whatsoever as it wasn't in their terms and conditions , if EON don't state that they check for flue gas leaks then you probably don't have a case with them , which leaves the installer , who told you that the flue was incorrectly fitted? Why do you trust their opinion over the gas safe fitter who installed it? , personally I would begin by contacting the manufacturer of your appliance and getting them to examine the installation , if they say it was installed incorrectly then that evidence needs to be presented to the installing engineer, if the manufacturers say it was installed correctly you probably don't have a leg to stand on , proving beyond reasonable doubt that you have always had a low level carbon monoxide leak and that it was indeed the cause of your families ill health sounds like a very long and expensive battle to me without the manufacturers confirmation, I wish you good luck with it all

Poppie68

There doesn't seem to be any mention of the family having blood tests done to determine if carbon minoxide was present in their systems and at what levels. This would be a key bit of evidence if they do have a case against any of the mentioned individuals or companies. The OP seems very vague on medical evidence.

C_Mababejive

#13 #15..
Right..so on the face of it it looks like there could be something to investigate.

I think the contents of the discharge notice from the hospital need to be more specific.

Under what circumstances did you attend A&E?

Did you attend of your own volition or where you ambulanced there after a collapse or similar?

If you attended voluntarily,what motivated you to do so?


The definitive documents which relate to the installation of flues are the boiler manufacturers instructions and the following BS document with the manufs installation instructions taking precedent though it will be based on the British Standard anyway.

BS 5440-1:2008

Flueing and ventilation for gas appliances of rated input not exceeding 70 kW net (1st, 2nd and 3rd family gases). Specification for installation of gas appliances to chimneys and for maintenance of chimneys



Natural Gas burning appliances do not normally emit appreciable amounts of CO under normal operating conditions.

jenthis

There is a check sheet EON use when servicing a boiler, I have my signed copy. One of the check lists asks if the flueing is correct. The engineer ticked yes! Therefore before ticking this he must have checked it!! If he didnt, he is in trouble.

The engineer who advised me that the flueing was incorrect looked at my boiler fitting instructions booklet. The measurments on how far away the flue should be from another opening is stated. The fitter clearly did not follow the booklet but ticked and signed a sheet to say he did which I also have a copy of. I took photgraphs with a tape measure to show he did not follow the instructions correctly. ( this is why I do not trust what the fitter did)

The engineer who diagnosed the problem works for the manufaturer. He advised the flue had not been fitted correctly!! I have the paperwork to support this also!

With regards to the diagnosis of the poisoning, the doctors used a maching to check. My son was at around 15% carbon monoxide. I was 8%, my partner 9% and my daughter 4%. My son was given oxygen therapy. Then we were sent home.

Our ilnesses all worsen in winter, which would be the case as the boiler is on constant.

The boiler was fitted 2010 feb. From then my son had numerous admissions to hospital but the worst was dec 10 over xmas. His breathing and oxygen levels were so low. on xmas eve he was put on the hdu. after 4 nights in hospital he was much better. Once home,after a few weeks he became ill again. He has been admitted to hospital on a number of occassions since this but since we have found out about the boiler, not once! (touch wood) It does make you wonder. My GP has been fantastic and said he will support us all the way. My daughter was born in Oct 2011, it was difficult for her to put weight on. She was sick most of the time and started to lose weight around 6 months old. Again, since the boiler has been fixed she has had no problems and is gaining weight again. This all could be acoincident but maybe not. Who knows!

jenthis

The discharge sheetS just says we attended a and e. Diagnosis- carbon monoxide poisoning. My gp also has a letter from the hospital which goes into more detail.

We called national grid when the alarm went off. He asked if we had any symptoms. We said yes, and took ourselves off to a and e. National grid could not check for co2 but tested the co2 alarm and it went off for him too. He just turned off the gas supply.

hmmm it makes me wonder now if the boiler is also faulty because of it actually making carbon monoxide in the first place!! Confused!

C_Mababejive

Hmmm..It does sound iffy. The BS says the flue should be within no more than 300mm of another opening i.e air vent or whatever. The installation docs for the boiler probably say the same. Presumably the boiler was fitted after the cooker hood outlet so the cooker hood outlet was apparent to the boiler installer?

Sounds like you and your family were very lucky...

jenthis

C_Mababejive wrote: »

Hmmm..It does sound iffy. The BS says the flue should be within no more than 300mm of another opening i.e air vent or whatever. The installation docs for the boiler probably say the same. Presumably the boiler was fitted after the cooker hood outlet so the cooker hood outlet was apparent to the boiler installer?

Sounds like you and your family were very lucky...

Yeah its something like that. It was directly underneath

Yes, the cooker hood outlet was there before the new boiler so he knew it was there.

zoominatorone

You want to be going after the idiot who installed it as well as the big company with pots of money.