Family of seven treated in hospital for suspected carbon monoxide poisoning

A faulty pool heater is believed to be responsible for sending a family of seven to hospital with suspected carbon monoxide poisoning after the group suffered nausea, dizziness and headaches.

A family of seven in Sydney's eastern suburbs has been taken to hospital suffering from carbon monoxide poisoning. Picture: Monique Harmer

A family of seven was rushed to hospital after suffering carbon monoxide poisoning from a faulty pool heater at an eastern suburbs mansion.

Julian and Anne O’Neil arrived at their $8 million home on Wentworth Rd in Vaucluse at 1.30pm on Monday to find three of their five children nearly passed out from the effects of the potentially deadly gas.

While phoning triple-0 the parents also were overcome by the gas.

Paramedics treated the group for nausea, dizziness and headaches before they were transported.

Julian O'Neil.

Anne O'Neil.

The children, four aged under 18 and one aged 19, were taken to Sydney Children’s Hospital and the adults were taken to Prince of Wales Hospital in stable conditions.

“It’s a good outcome, but it could have been a very nasty situation,” NSW Fire and Rescue Inspector Russell Johnson said at the scene.

NSWFR Superintendent Josh Turner said the faulty heater for the outdoor pool had leaked the poisonous gas into the house.

A family of seven in Sydney's eastern suburbs has been taken to hospital suffering from carbon monoxide poisoning. Picture: Monique Harmer

“It was a pool heater which produces carbon monoxide as an exhaust, which is very normal (but) it seemed to be a malfunction of the exhaust or flu system — like what’s above a cooking stove,” he said.

“It looks to be a possible malfunction (that) may have caused the carbon monoxide produced by the pool heater to be released into the residence.

“They were inside the house, if it was outside it would’ve ventilated. The exhaust is attached to the house and somehow it seeped in.”

The O’Neil’s pool before renovations.

A neighbour said the family had only just moved back in after renovating the house in recent months.

“They’ve only just moved back in … they had the house renovated,” he said. “There’s a few kids … I’m glad they’re all OK,” they said.

The O’Neils’ property is on the same street where James and Erica Packer used to live in their mega-mansion La Mer, which sold for a record breaking $70 million in 2015.

One neighbour said it was a shock that something with the house had gone wrong given Mr O’Neil was a prominent figure in the building industry with his company Gunlake, which his brothers also work for.

“It’s really lucky, because I was going out with my kids at about 1.30pm – their car is distinct, as we were going out they were coming home, so lucky they came home,” he said.

Firefighters detected high levels of carbon monoxide in the atmosphere of the home and traced it to the pool heating system, which runs on natural gas.

Carbon monoxide is an odourless and colourless but potentially fatal gas. It is particularly dangerous because it displaces oxygen in the body, which damages internal organs and the brain.

“At extremely high levels, carbon monoxide can cause death,” NSW Health’s website states.

Originally published as Family of seven treated in hospital for suspected carbon monoxide poisoning