A married couple and their child have been hospitalized, with the latter in critical condition, after they became unable to breathe due to a coal heater in their closed room in Ha Tinh Province, north-central Vietnam on Thursday.

Authorities in Cam Binh Commune of Ha Tinh’s Cam Xuyen District, where the incident occurred, said that 34-year-old N.D.P., his wife, N.T.B., and their one-month-old child, N.D.T., were found unconscious in their bedroom by P.’s older brother on Thursday morning.

The brother came to P.’s house to find out why he had not taken his child to school that day.

The three victims were then rushed to hospital for emergency treatment.

Local police checked P.’s house and found that the family had burned coal to keep warm the night before. 

Because the room was closed, all three family members wound up suffocating and fainting.

The Ha Tinh General Hospital, which admitted the three victims at around 7:50 am on Thursday, said that they arrived in a state of shortness of breath, fatigue, and nausea. 

Doctors diagnosed the patients with carbon monoxide poisoning.

Carbon monoxide is produced when fuels such as gas, oil, coal, and wood do not burn correctly, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Currently, P. and B. are in stable condition but still on respiratory support. 

T., however, is intubed and on mechanical ventilation. 

The child is currently receiving treatment at Vietnam National Children’s Hospital.

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