Sick parrot becomes a lifesaver

Birds have been used to detect dangerous gases in the past

A sick parrot has saved the lives of a family who were succumbing to the effects of carbon monoxide.

When the family of three awoke feeling unwell on Saturday morning, they decided to return to bed.

However, when they noticed that their 10-year-old cockatoo Georgie had been sick they realised something was seriously wrong.

The family, from Dalgety Bay, in Fife, called the emergency services and collapsed just as an ambulance arrived.

The three family members, who did not wish to be named, said they have since been told that emergency crews arrived just in time as they were minutes from death.

The mother said: "I thought he might have choked on a pecan nut, so I made sure he had brought everything up. The next minute I began to shake.

"When my husband came back in to the bedroom he began to realise something was seriously wrong."

Gasping for air

The husband shouted to their daughter, a nurse, who was in her bedroom.

"I looked at the parrot and he had his beak open, as if he was gasping for air and he's never ill.

"That's when I thought, 'I'm ill, my wife's ill and my daughter's ill: it must be gas'.

"By this time my head felt like it was coming off and the pain in my chest was really bad. It was like walking on cotton wool. I couldn't feel my feet on the floor."

The family underwent treatment at Queen Margaret Hospital

The ambulance arrived and, just as he let one of the paramedics in, he collapsed in a heap in the hall.

Their daughter was also on the point of collapse and was trying to crawl out of her room.

The level of carbon monoxide in the house was so bad that within minutes of the emergency services arriving and going into the house the crew had begun to complain of feeling dizzy as well.

The family were rushed to Queen Margaret Hospital in Dunfermline where they were detained overnight for observation.

With everyone now fully recovered - including the lifesaving parrot - the family plans to have a carbon monoxide detector fitted.

Birds are renowned for being uniquely sensitive to gas poisoning and for centuries, miners used canaries in cages to warn of the presence of explosive methane gas or carbon dioxide.