Sheffield mum and disabled son suffer carbon monoxide poisoning after council workers 'wrecked' house

Lauren Jade Bradwell’s council house on Kenworthy Road, Stocksbridge, needed repairs doing for a rising damp issue, and she was told she would have to move out on September 27 with her disabled son and three dogs while the work was done.

She stayed with a friend for 10 days until the council told her she could return. But she was moved to tears by what she found when she returned on October 7.

Lauren, a carer who offers respite care for terminally ill children, found her house ‘wrecked’, with plug sockets hanging off the wall, no electricity, no gas and no hot water.

And to make matters worse, a few days after she moved back in Lauren and her son Harry, 13, who has anxiety, Tourettes and ADHD, got carbon monoxide poisoning caused by faulty central heating.

“It has been hell,” she said. "When I saw the state of the house I just cried and cried, and I am usually very stern.

“I work from home so I have not been able to have people round to offer respite care so I have lost wages, and the stress has made Harry ill so he has been off school.

“I feel like I am on the verge of a nervous breakdown. I am angry and frustrated and upset.”

Three days after she moved back in, Lauren says a gas man attended the house, uncapped the gas and said that the central heating and oven was safe to use.

However, Lauren said that within a day of using the appliances she started to feel ‘dizzy’.

"I went into the kitchen after work and I blacked out and collapsed,” she said. “I woke up on the stairs and was confused, but I noticed the boiler hissing so I rang the council.

"An emergency gas team came and confirmed I had a carbon monoxide leak. Me and Harry went to the doctors who confirmed we had poisoning.”

Lauren has been trying to get the council to arrange for her house to be fixed since she moved back in, but to no avail.

She said: "I have been on the phone twice a day for two weeks, since I first moved out, to find out what is happening and I have just been on hold all the time.

"I was on hold for an hour this morning and when I got through they said they might send somebody round, but if they can’t I have to wait until Monday. I don’t know what they think people do with their lives but I can’t just wait all the time.

"I’ve not been able to cook. I’m relying on neighbours to make us meals. I can’t get on with my life and go to work and decorate the house again.

“It is unacceptable to leave people in this situation.

Sheffield City Council has been contacted for a response.

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