Carbon Monoxide Poisoning Claim

Carbon Monoxide Poisoning Claim

Duncan Lewis Industrial Claims Solicitors – No win no fee Carbon Monoxide Poisoning Claims

Carbon monoxide (CO) is known as the silent killer because it is has no odour or taste.

Carbon monoxide poisoning occurs when CO binds to red blood cells. Red blood cells usually carry oxygen to the brain and other organs, but CO is more efficient at binding with the haemoglobin in red blood cells than oxygen is – and so gradually replaces it until the blood is carrying more CO and insufficient oxygen. It only takes four minutes of oxygen deprivation in the blood before brain cells begin to die.

In work environments where carbon monoxide may be released, employers have a duty to manage risk – as well as advising workers of the risks and taking preventative measures to make sure employees do not suffer the symptoms of carbon monoxide poisoning.

Exposure to carbon monoxide may build up over time, so that employees gradually begin to experience CO poisoning symptoms, which include:

• Blurred vision
• Breathlessness.
• Dizziness
• Drowsiness
• Headache
• Lethargy
• Loss of consciousness
• Nausea
• Struggling for breath
• Vomiting.

CO poisoning can cause serious and catastrophic injuries, including:

• Brain/neurological injury
• Blood vessel damage
• Cardiac/heart attacks.
• Memory loss or poor recall
• Physical disability
• Spinal cord injury.

If pregnant women suffer carbon monoxide poisoning, the effects may cause birth injuries in a baby exposed to CO in the womb, including brain injury.

The symptoms of CO may also take hold more quickly in pregnant women, as well as workers who have been physically active and are breathing more deeply.

Industries where there may be a higher risk of CO poisoning include

• Construction workers
• Fuel industry
• Furnace engineers
• Firefighters
• Gas fitters
• Heating engineers
• Maintenance workers
• Mining
• Motor industry
• Transport
• Shipping and boating.

Brain injury caused by lack of oxygen in the blood is known as cerebral hypoxia – hypoxic-anoxic injury (HAI) if caused by partial lack of oxygen, or anoxic brain injury is caused by a complete lack of oxygen.

People who survive CO poisoning may have permanent brain injury, resulting in physical or cognitive impairments – and even mood swings or a change in personality, depending on which area of the brain has suffered injury.

Duncan Lewis Industrial Claims Solicitors can advise workers who have suffered injury as a result of exposure to CO on how to make no win no fee carbon monoxide poisoning claims.

Making Claims for Carbon Monoxide Poisoning

Workers who have been diagnosed with injuries as a result of being exposed to carbon monoxide in the workplace or in the course of their duties have three years from the date of diagnosis in which to make a no win no fee industrial disease claim for carbon monoxide compensation.

Duncan Lewis industrial claims solicitors can also advise bereaved families whose loved one has died as a result of carbon monoxide poisoning at work on how to make no win no fee compensation claim for CO poisoning – including if the cause of death at post-mortem was found to be as a result of exposure to CO fumes in the workplace.

Duncan Lewis can also advise women exposed to CO fumes at work while they were pregnant and whose baby went on to suffer a birth injury on how to make an industrial compensation claim for carbon monoxide poisoning.

Duncan Lewis Industrial Claims Solicitors – No win no fee Carbon Monoxide Poisoning Claims

Duncan Lewis industrial claims solicitors are leading firm of no win no fee lawyers and can advise victims of industrial diseases and their families on how to make a CO poisoning compensation claims.

Duncan Lewis industrial claims solicitors employ medical experts in industrial diseases if it is necessary to prove a link between a claimant having been exposed to carbon monoxide and being diagnosed with an injury such as brain injury.

Because of the limitation period for making claims for exposure to CO fumes, Duncan Lewis industrial claims solicitors advise claimants to get in touch as soon as possible after injury relating to carbon monoxide exposure at work has been diagnosed.

For expert legal advice on no win no fee Carbon Monoxide Poisoning Claims, call Duncan Lewis Industrial Claims Solicitors on 020 7923 4020.