A couple with a six-week-old baby managed to escape with their lives at the very last moment during a caravan getaway.
Amber and her partner James had travelled approximately 200 miles in their caravan to meet up with a group of friends.
In the early hours of August 29, the couple were woken up while in their caravan in Caldecott, Oxfordshire, by the sound of an alarm, reports Liverpool Echo.
The beeping noise was coming from their carbon monoxide meter which displayed a reading of 90 on the screen.
Amber stated that in the two minutes it took to grab their baby son, Elliot, and get out of the caravan the reading had shot up to over 200.
What makes their escape even more miraculous, was that James had only checked the carbon monoxide alarm 12-hours before and saw that it had no batteries in.
In a post uploaded to Facebook, Amber said: "We had unknowingly been travelling without batteries in our carbon monoxide detector for some while, without giving it much thought because it’s just one of those things that ‘happens to someone else’.
"That morning we had gone to spoons for breakfast, which is unlike us, then we saw an Aldi where James popped in, and whilst in there remembered that Elliot's Ewan sheep had been used a lot recently.
"He picked up some batteries for the sheep, something we normally delay doing for ages because we always begrudge the price of them.
"Then in the afternoon, James, for some reason, thought to check the carbon monoxide detector to find it had no batteries in it; he put 3 AA batteries in the alarm - just 12 hours later it saved our lives."
After escaping, the couple woke up their friends who took them inside.
Amber said: "Once we had breathed in some fresh air we realised how unwell we felt. Our chests were very tight and it was painful to breath. At the time I felt that I was able to drive us to hospital.
"Looking back we should have phoned an ambulance but I was running on adrenalin.
"James ran back into the van to grab some essentials such as the changing bag and milk for Elliot, and to turn off all of the gas appliances.
"On the drive in we were both beginning to feel worse, thankfully we were only a 17 minute drive from the nearest A&E.
"When we got to hospital we were all taken into a family room on the children’s unit, it was here that James’ condition seemed to worsen. He was taken up to the adult A&E for further tests and was put on oxygen.
"We now see that this was because he re entered the caravan after we had escaped.
"Somehow, Elliot’s blood gas results were, as the doctor said, ‘close’ to the normal range and lower than James’.
"However, we were told that with a carbon monoxide reading above 50 to expect symptoms, and a reading above 150 is life threatening, much lower numbers than those we were exposed too."
The source of the carbon monoxide is believed to have come from a faulty fridge.
Amber contacted Lancashire Fire and Rescue Service to warn others to spread the word for people to make sure they had working carbon monoxide detectors in their homes and caravans.
She added: "Forget to take your awning, chairs, head torch, aqua roll? It’s frustrating but it won’t kill you. Forget your carbon monoxide detector and it just might."
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