A Westcliff family poisoned by carbon monoxide fumes have had specialist oxygen treatment after the gas leak.

The parents, their two sons, aged 15 and 20, and their 18-year-old daughter felt sick when they woke up in their Fairfax Drive house yesterday morning. The mother collapsed before emergency services were called.

At first they thought they had food poisoning until equipment at Southend Hospital's A & E department confirmed the presence of deadly carbon monoxide in their blood.

Senior registrar Dr Gerry Lane said: "They were significantly poisoned."

The mother and daughter had to be transferred to the James Paget Hospital in Great Yarmouth, Norfolk, which has a hyperbaric oxygen chamber.

The chamber exposes the body to oxygen up to three times the pressure of that in the atmosphere. It is used for divers suffering from the bends.

The father and oldest boy were kept on the observation ward, while the 15-year-old was taken to the paediatric ward. All three were treated with oxygen masks.

Dr Lane said it can take six hours for half the gas to leave the body normally, and allow oxygen in. An oxygen mask can reduce the time to 60 minutes while the chamber does the work in just 20.

He said: "We tend to base treatment on symptoms rather than absolute numbers. The females had more symptoms."

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