Many of these tragedies are preventable. They often trace back to failures by landlords, hotels, employers, property owners, or product manufacturers to follow basic safety rules: maintaining fuel-burning appliances, ensuring proper ventilation, and installing working carbon monoxide detectors.

This article explains how carbon monoxide poisoning happens, common signs and long-term effects, who may be legally responsible, and what to do if you or a loved one was harmed by a CO exposure.

What is carbon monoxide poisoning?

Carbon monoxide is produced when fuels like gas, oil, wood, coal, or propane don’t burn completely. In enclosed or poorly ventilated spaces, CO can quickly build up to dangerous levels.

When you inhale CO, it attaches to hemoglobin in your blood more strongly than oxygen does. As CO builds up, it starves your organs and brain of oxygen, leading to:

• Confusion and disorientation
• Loss of consciousness
• Permanent neurological damage
• Cardiac complications
• Death

The danger is often highest at night or in sleeping areas, when victims may never wake up to call for help.

Common sources of carbon monoxide exposure

CO poisoning can happen almost anywhere fuel is burned indoors or in a confined space. Frequent fact patterns in lawsuits include:

Homes and apartments

• Faulty or unmaintained furnaces and boilers
• Gas water heaters, stoves, or ovens without proper ventilation
• Blocked chimneys or flues
• Space heaters used in small, closed rooms

Hotels, motels, and vacation rentals

• Malfunctioning pool heaters or boilers (often located below or next to guest rooms)
• Central heating systems vented improperly
• Lack of working CO alarms in guest rooms

Workplaces and commercial buildings

• Forklifts or other fuel-powered equipment operating indoors
• Generators running in loading docks, warehouses, or attached garages
• Commercial kitchens or industrial processes without adequate exhaust

Vehicles and garages

• Cars, trucks, or buses idling in enclosed garages
• Boat engines or houseboats with poor ventilation

In many of these situations, a property owner, landlord, employer, or contractor knew or should have known about the risk and failed to fix it or warn people in time.

Symptoms of carbon monoxide poisoning

One of the most dangerous features of CO poisoning is that early symptoms often look like a minor illness, so people stay put and continue to be exposed. Common signs include:

• Headache
• Nausea or vomiting
• Dizziness or lightheadedness
• Fatigue or feeling “flu-like”
• Shortness of breath
• Blurred vision or difficulty concentrating

With higher doses or longer exposure, symptoms may progress to:

• Chest pain or irregular heartbeat
• Confusion or personality changes
• Loss of consciousness
• Seizures
• Coma or death

Even survivors can be left with long-term neurological and cognitive problems, mood changes, memory loss, mobility issues, or chronic headaches due to the brain’s oxygen deprivation during the exposure.

Who can be held liable in a carbon monoxide poisoning lawsuit?

Each CO case is different, but investigations frequently point to avoidable safety failures. Potentially responsible parties can include:

1. Landlords and property managers

They generally must provide safe, habitable housing which includes maintaining furnaces, water heaters, and appliances; ensuring proper ventilation; and complying with any state or local CO-detector requirements. Liability may arise when they:

• Ignore complaints about gas smells, headaches, or detector alarms
• Fail to repair or replace known faulty equipment
• Remove or disable carbon monoxide detectors
• Don’t install detectors where required by code

2. Hotels, motels, resorts, and short-term rentals

Owners and operators can be liable for CO poisoning in guest rooms or common areas when they:

• Fail to maintain pool heaters, boilers, or HVAC systems
• Don’t install CO detectors in guest rooms or choose low-quality devices without proper placement
• Ignore prior incidents, code violations, or warning signs

3. Employers and business owners

Workplaces that use fuel-burning equipment may be responsible when they don’t:

• Provide adequate ventilation
• Train workers on CO risks
• Maintain equipment safely
• Monitor CO levels in high-risk areas

4. Product manufacturers and installers

In some cases, liability extends to:

• Manufacturers of defective furnaces, water heaters, generators, or CO detectors
• Contractors or technicians who improperly install or service equipment, causing leaks or venting failures

5. Utilities or maintenance companies

Gas utilities or service contractors may share responsibility if careless work or ignored red flags contribute to a dangerous leak.

To bring a successful carbon monoxide poisoning lawsuit, the injured person (or their family) generally must prove:

1. The defendant owed a duty of care (for example, to provide safe housing or maintain equipment).
2. They breached that duty through action or inaction.
3. That breach caused the CO exposure.
4. The victim suffered measurable harm (injuries or death).

What compensation may be available?

Although no amount of money can undo a catastrophic injury or wrongful death, a carbon monoxide poisoning lawsuit can help families secure the resources they need and hold negligent parties accountable. Damages may include:

• Medical expenses (emergency care, hospitalization, hyperbaric oxygen therapy, rehabilitation, long-term care)
• Lost wages and loss of future earning capacity if the victim cannot return to work or must take lower-paying work
• Costs of in-home care, adaptive equipment, or home modifications for permanent disabilities
• Pain and suffering and loss of quality of life due to cognitive changes, chronic symptoms, or emotional trauma
• Wrongful death damages in fatal cases, including funeral expenses, loss of financial support, and loss of companionship

In rare cases, punitive damages may be available if a defendant’s conduct was particularly reckless for example, ignoring repeated warnings, disabling alarms, or covering up a known CO problem.

What to do if you suspect carbon monoxide poisoning

If you suspect a CO leak right now, your immediate priority is safety:

1. Get everyone out of the building or confined space immediately.
2. Call 911 and report suspected carbon monoxide exposure.
3. Seek medical attention even if symptoms improve once you’re outside CO levels in the blood can still be dangerously high.

Once everyone is safe and treated, it’s important to protect your legal rights:

• Preserve evidence.
  • Keep copies of hospital records, discharge summaries, and CO-level test results.
  • Save photos or videos of the scene, appliances, heaters, or alarms.
  • Write down what happened, including dates, times, symptoms, and any complaints you made to a landlord, hotel, or employer.
• Do not let anyone quietly “fix” or remove equipment without documentation. If it’s safe to do so, note the names of any inspectors, utility technicians, or fire officials who respond, and request copies of their reports.
• Avoid signing releases or settlements without legal advice. An insurer or property owner may offer a quick payment that doesn’t come close to covering long-term medical and financial needs especially if brain or neurological injury is suspected.

How McEldrew Purtell approaches carbon monoxide cases

McEldrew Purtell represents victims of toxic exposure, catastrophic injury, and wrongful death in Pennsylvania and nationwide, including claims involving carbon monoxide poisoning in homes, hotels, workplaces, and public buildings.

In CO cases, we typically:

• Work with fire investigators, engineers, and code experts to determine exactly how and why the leak occurred
• Analyze maintenance records, inspection reports, and code-enforcement files to identify missed warnings
• Coordinate with neurologists, neuropsychologists, and other specialists to document the full extent of brain and organ damage
• Pursue all responsible parties including landlords, property managers, hotel owners, contractors, and manufacturers to maximize available recovery

Our focus is not only on compensation but also on preventing the same failures from harming other families.

Talk with a carbon monoxide poisoning lawyer

If you or a loved one suffered carbon monoxide poisoning at home, in an apartment, at a hotel, at work, or in another building, you don’t have to untangle the medical and legal fallout on your own. An early, thorough investigation can make a critical difference in proving what happened and who is responsible.

Call McEldrew Purtell at (215) 545-8800 or complete our online Free Consultation form for a no-cost, confidential review of your potential carbon monoxide poisoning case.

We’ll listen to what happened, explain your legal options, and help you decide on the next steps to protect your health, your family, and your future.