Smoking Hookah Leads to Carbon Monoxide Poisoning: Woman Thought She Was ‘Going to Die’

A 24-year old content creator and her friends were hospitalized with carbon monoxide poisoning after a hangout with a hookah went wrong.

“I thought I was going to die,”  Rachel Micheaux told People.

Micheaux, along with three other friends, spent about five hours smoking out of a hookah at her apartment as part of  a “girls day” to help Micheaux get over a breakup. About four and a half hours after they started, Micheaux says that one of her friends said she was developing a headache, though this was dismissed because they were drinking and smoking.

“We're just thinking she's probably just feeling the effects [of the drugs they were using],” she said.

But Micheaux’s friend was adamant that she felt ill. About 20 minutes later, another friend complained of a headache, chest pain, and fatigue, followed by Micheaux herself experiencing symptoms.

At this time, Micheaux’s carbon monoxide alarm started ringing — but she turned it off, saying that it would sometimes go off for no reason, and that she assumed this was a similar situation. However, once she reset the alarms and they continued to go off, she realized something was truly wrong.

Finally, one of her friends insisted they call 911. When firefighters arrived, they found high carbon monoxide levels and told the group that they needed to go to the hospital.

“It's not a laughing matter, it's not funny, it's scary when you think about it…My ignorance put my friends' lives in jeopardy. So looking back I felt really bad and we were all pretty scared at that point,” Micheaux said. 

Carbon monoxide is a gas that has no distinct smell or color, which can make it difficult to identify without a carbon monoxide detector. Michigan apartments are required to have these detectors in apartments that use gas powered stoves or water heaters, or if the apartment is attached to a garage. It is produced from multiple types of combustion, including a car engine running or by smoking something like a hookah. 

It is usually not a poisoning risk in a well-ventilated area, Diane Calello, M.D., the executive and medical director at the New Jersey Poison Control Center, told The Messenger. In hookah lounges, for example, proper ventilation is required in the U.S. to avoid situations such as Micheaux’s.

But in her case, she had closed the windows and doors of her apartment, creating a space where carbon monoxide could build up. When carbon monoxide accumulates in a closed space, breathing it in can cause your blood to replace oxygen with carbon monoxide, which deprives your organs and tissues of crucial oxygen.

Micheaux and her friends were placed on oxygen at the hospital for five hours. This is the typical course of treatment, which helps the body regain the oxygen that it has been deprived of. 

In some cases, patients may also be put in what’s called a hyperbaric oxygen chamber, which surrounds the patient in pure oxygen to speed up recovery.

Carbon monoxide poisoning can be difficult to diagnose because it does not have a tell-tale symptom, Dr. Calello told The Messenger. Headaches, fatigue, and chest pain can be the symptoms of a multitude of other maladies, and unless healthcare providers actively suspect that carbon monoxide might be involved, it won’t be immediately obvious. This is one of the reasons why having a carbon monoxide detector is so important. 

“If there’s one thing I want everyone to know about carbon monoxide, it’s not hookahs, it’s not catalytic converters, it’s that carbon monoxide detectors save lives,” Dr. Calello said.