WCAX.COM Local Vermont News, Weather and Sports-Carbon monoxide dangers

December 26, 2011

When Nikkie Sedaghat came home for college break last year she stayed in her parent's guest house.

"I knew it was going to be cold so I asked my mom to turn on the heater," she said.

That was the mistake that almost killed her. The wall heater was clogged with leaves, filling the air with carbon monoxide. Her mom found her the next morning.

"I went to her bed and shook her a little bit... Nikkie, Nikkie, and there was no answer," mom Zina Sedaghat said.

The odorless, colorless gas left Nikkie in a coma.

"We were afraid this was totally irreversible," said Dr. Paul Vespa of Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center.

Her only hope-- the hyperbaric chamber at the University of California Los Angeles Medical Center.

When a patient is being treated inside the chamber they wear a hood, breathing pure oxygen as the tank is pressurized to 66 feet below sea level. The pressure forces more oxygen in and carbon monoxide out. Doctors also used hypothermia to try to protect Nikkie's brain.

"We put her brain in suspended animation," Vespa said.

To avoid carbon monoxide poisoning experts warn people to get their heating units checked annually, have a carbon monoxide detector and change the batteries regularly. Also they say don't idle your car in the garage.

Nikkie Sedaghat was lucky.

"I'm doing everything I did before," she said.

And more-- back at college she's telling everyone she knows about the dangers of carbon monoxide.

While carbon monoxide detectors are easy to find, experts say they are not as reliable as smoke detectors, and nothing can replace regular checks and upkeep of your furnace.