It’s that time of year when people increase their generator and indoor heating uses which has prompted a warning from Duke Anesthesiology’s Dr. Richard Moon about the dangers of carbon monoxide poisoning, as featured on WRAL-TV on November 29.
This warning comes one week after 16 people were sent to Duke Anesthesiology’s one-of-a-kind hyperbaric chamber to be treated for carbon monoxide poisoning, the only chamber in the state that treats patients 24/7, 365 days a year.
Dr. Moon is the medical director of the Center for Hyperbaric Medicine and Environmental Physiology, where the chamber is housed. He treated the 16 patients. As explained in the WRAL article by his colleague, Dr. Jake Freiberger, patients are seated in chairs, and they wear a hood over their head as the chamber washes out carbon monoxide from their bodies and replaces it with 100 percent oxygen.
According to the WRAL article, symptoms of carbon monoxide include dizziness and feeling light-headed. Doctors warn that not getting treatment quickly enough can result in long-term effects to the brain, such as memory loss or death.