It happened to me: I was poisoned by carbon monoxide after
neighbor removed beeping battery  082108Moses.JPGSarah Moses  I
will never forget April Fools' Day. Emergency room doctors told
me I was lucky to be alive, and that was no joke.  On April 1, I
was treated for carbon monoxide poisoning at Upstate Medical
University after a pipe leading to my furnace broke and began
spilling carbon monoxide into my apartment for five days.  My
neighbor removed the batteries to my carbon monoxide detector,
which was located outside my second-floor apartment door, five
days before I was hospitalized. She said it was beeping and she
assumed the batteries were dead, a mistake that could have taken
my life.  Carbon monoxide is a colorless, odorless, poisonous
gas, and the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Council says about 170
people die each year from carbon monoxide poisoning from non-
automotive consumer products, such as water heaters, fireplaces
and generators.  My carbon monoxide detector was disabled on
March 28, and I wok