Jack had been working on his gas furnace all afternoon. Hefinally thought that he fixed the old, dilapidated furnace. It wasgoing to get really cold that evening so he wanted to make surethat the furnace would keep them warm all night.

Jack went to bed at 11:00 p.m. as usual but he noticed that hehad a slight headache before going to bed. He just thought that heneeded to sleep. His wife and kids also had complained of having aheadache that evening.

Jack woke up at 4:00 a.m. feeling extremely nauseous and hishead was pounding. He got out of bed to go get some aspirin. Whenhe got up, he stumbled about, feeling as if he was going to passout. He nudged his wife to see if she would get him some aspirin.She didn’t move. He called out her name and nudged her again. Shestill didn’t move.

In a panic, he grabbed the phone and dialed 911. The operatoranswered and Jack yelled, “It’s my wife, she won’t get up!”

The operator replied, “Sir, what is your address?”  There was no response.   “Sir?!?”

The emergency personnel arrived at the scene. Upon entering thehouse, they found 4 individuals unconscious in 3 differentbedrooms. They were still breathing but barely.

As the emergency personnel were assessing the situation, theythemselves started to feel nauseous and felt as if they were goingto pass out. They moved quickly and made sure that everyone was outof the house.

As soon as everyone was out of the house, the emergencypersonnel started to feel better again.   Jack and hisfamily were given oxygen on their way to the hospital. At thehospital they did a battery of tests and everything looked fineexcept for their COHb levels which were 30%.

1. What was wrong with Jack and his family?

1. What are normal COHb levels?

1. What treatment should Jack and his family be given?

1. What may be the cause of their high COHb levels?

1. Why does high COHb levels cause the symptoms that Jack and hisfamily experienced?