Eight residents of a seniors home in Canada's western Alberta province were poisoned Monday after exhaust from a running car permeated the building with carbon monoxide, reports said.
Five of them were in critical condition when they were carried out the building, located in the community of Linden, about 100 kilometers northeast of Calgary.
They were taken by air ambulances to hospitals in provincial capital Edmonton and Calgary to receive treatment in hyperbaric chambers, where three have been upgraded to stable condition and two remain in critical condition.
About 35 paramedics and firefighters from communities around the small village rushed into the condo-style seniors home after a caretaker noticed an odd smell, police said.
Carbon monoxide, a gas which is colorless, odorless and highly toxic, attaches itself to hemoglobin and so interferes with the body's ability to transport oxygen through the blood to the body's cells.
Police said early indications suggested that the gas may have come from a car accidentally left running in the underground garage of the building.
Source: Xinhua
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