Carbon Monoxide Poisoning
When you’re exposed to carbon monoxide in the air, your body replaces the oxygen in your red blood cells with the dangerous, odorless gas. This can lead to serious tissue damage and even death. Hyperbaric oxygen can help reduce complications of carbon monoxide poisoning, even save lives, by flushing the toxin out of the bloodstream through the delivery of 100 percent oxygen under pressure in a hyperbaric chamber.
Common in house fires and other closed spaces involving equipment like a faulty space heater, carbon monoxide poisoning is the leading cause of poisoning death in the United States. The danger lies in the odorless, colorless, and tasteless nature of the gas that has a 100-fold greater affinity for hemoglobin than oxygen.
Symptoms of carbon monoxide poisoning include:
Visual impairment
Memory loss
Decreased level of consciousness
Motor and sensory loss. Pregnant women have a higher risk of poisoning since the hemoglobin in the baby binds more tightly than adult hemoglobin does.
People experiencing carbon monoxide poisoning benefit from hyperbaric oxygen therapy’s ability to:
Accelerate the release and elimination of carbon monoxide from the blood by supersaturating the tissues with 100 percent oxygen.
Decrease cerebral swelling.
Restore the oxygen level to normal as quickly as possible.
WHEN TO REFER TO HYOX:
Immediately, upon exposure to carbon monoxide to flush the toxin out of the bloodstream or as soon as neurological symptoms manifest. If you live in the Metro Atlanta area, please ask emergency medicine personnel to refer you for hyperbaric oxygen therapy at HyOx as soon as possible. Please note that neurological problems with memory, attention or concentration can occur immediately after exposure and persist or can be delayed, but they generally occur within 20 days after carbon monoxide poisoning.