How can you have Permanent Brain Damage from CO after Oxygen levels return to normal?

FAQ: How can you have permanent brain damage from CO even after the carbon monoxide is removed from your blood?

Short Answer: Because brain cells can be damaged by both they lack of oxygen of the event and from inflammatory effects of the poison causing the permeation of the blood brain barrier.

How can you have permanent brain damage from CO even after the carbon monoxide is removed from your blood? Because lack of oxygen can kill brain cells immediately (as shown here) and the delayed effects of the toxic assault on the blood brain barrier can kill brain cells for weeks and months.

FAQ: If you survive carbon monoxide poisoning, what is the Big Deal?

Short Answer: Brain damage is permeant and about 40% of those who survive carbon monoxide poisoning, get brain damage.

Griff Winthrop: And that was going to bring me to my next question. And we get this all the time. We run into this with people who you think would know better, from emergency room physicians to opposing lawyers and oftentimes judges. I mean, if you survive the carbon monoxide poisoning, what’s the big deal?

Gordon Johnson: Well, the big deal is that the body requires oxygen. All the cells in the body require oxygen, and a cell can, in fact, be asphyxiated. And that is most likely to happen in very severe poisonings where the heart might stop. Most of the people who die from carbon monoxide are dying from heart attack because there’s not enough oxygen in the blood to keep the heart beating.

But the secondary effects of carbon monoxide are more likely to occur in the brain because what happens is it kicks in this cycle of immunological response, setting off chemicals that create a metabolic cascade of proteins and involves the penetration of what is the blood brain barrier.

The blood brain barrier is a barrier which separates each blood vessel, from actual brain tissue. Only the smallest molecules are supposed to penetrate through this relatively non-porous layer and get into the brain tissue itself. But the carbon monoxide sets off an attack of these proteins on the blood brain barrier, making these holes more porous. And when that happens bad chemicals get on the wrong side of that of the barrier. Chemicals that only belong in the bloodstream get into the brain tissue and chemicals that only belong in the brain tissue side, get into the bloodstream. That sets off immunological responses that are not meant to be. And ultimately, you can wind up with an autoimmune disorder.

Proteins out of Place can be Destructive

The bottom line is that significant brain damage can occur. And that’s what carbon monoxide cases are about. We don’t typically represent people who die from carbon monoxide. We represent people who have permanent damage. And 99% of that damage starts with the brain damage.