John and Cindy Graziani will never unplug their combined carbon monoxide-smoke detector again, no matter how loud the alarm when they cook. Not after the events of about 2 a.m. Jan. 24, when Molly, one of two family dogs, saved them and their two children from probable death by carbon monoxide poisoning.

She was just in time.

"The alarm was not set until 4:15," said Mr. Graziani, 38, a Fairmont, W.Va., resident who works at Harris Power Station. "I don't think anybody would have been able to shut the alarm off. ... If she hadn't woke us up, we'd have died in our sleep."

Cindy Graziani had been sick all day and had chills, so she was sleeping in the living room by a heater. Mr. Graziani, feeling bad about his wife's accommodations, had traded rooms with their 9-year-old daughter, Cierra, to be closer to his spouse.

Somewhere around 2, Mrs. Graziani was awakened by Molly, a Husky mix, nudging her and licking her face. "She kept bugging her and bugging her and bugging her," Mr. Graziani said. "She was persistent. My wife asked her if she wanted to go outside."

Mrs. Graziani got up and that's when she realized something wasn't quite right. She started screaming for help.

"She was yelling, 'There's something wrong; there's something wrong,' " Mr. Graziani said. "I walked over to her -- she was halfway sitting up and I asked her what was wrong. She said, 'I don't know. Help me. Help me.'

"That went on a little bit," Mr. Graziani said. "The next thing I know I'm on the floor. I'm dizzy, delusional. I had a bad headache. I couldn't make my body do what I wanted to do. I was trying to make my body get up and I couldn't."

Mrs. Graziani kept yelling as Mr. Graziani crawled into the bathroom to wet a washcloth to wipe their faces. Their son, Brandon, who turned 15 on Feb. 1, heard the commotion and came to tell his dad he was OK, so John sent Brandon to help his mother.

"I heard my wife tell him, 'Get me a glass of water,' " John Graziani said. "He got the glass of water and was almost back to her when he dropped the glass and he hit the floor."

Mr. Graziani kept trying to wet the washcloth. "My hands wouldn't do what I was trying to do. ... At the same time, I heard my wife praying, praying like she'd never prayed before."

He finally succeeded in pulling himself up to the sink, getting water on his face, "which helped me a lot," and wetting a washcloth. Though he was very dizzy, he headed back to the living room to wipe the faces of his wife and son. "He came around a little bit, and my wife did too," Mr. Graziani said.

"She said, 'Maybe it's carbon monoxide,' so we put the battery back in," Mr. Graziani said. (The alarm and the battery were on a table near them.) "It went off immediately," he said.

Mr. Graziani called 911 and the emergency operator told him to get everyone out of the house immediately. "We got dressed as best as we could. It was very cold that night," he said. "I grabbed my daughter out of bed." After the family was out, he returned for Molly, their golden retriever Goldie and one of their two cats. He couldn't find the second, a kitten, but the responding firefighters did and Mr. Graziani put both cats, accustomed to living indoors, in his truck. They put the dogs in their fenced-in back yard.

In the midst of all this, the Grazianis found out just lucky they were.

The firefighters went in with their carbon monoxide detectors and when they came out said the levels in the house were more than high enough for them to wear their self-contained breathing apparatus. "We were exposed at 30 times the limit," Mr. Graziani said.

The firemen said the family needed to summon an ambulance. "We said we didn't need one," Mr. Graziani said. "They said, 'You don't understand. You need to call an ambulance.' " Two emergency units arrived and transported them to Ruby Memorial Hospital in Morgantown, W.Va.

Ruby personnel took the CO levels in their bloods and explained that they were well above normal. That range is 1 percent in non-smokers up to 9 or 10 for two-packs-a-day smokers, experts said.

"My daughter's was 16. My wife was 18. My son was 26, and mine was 29," Mr. Graziani said.

"After they got those numbers, they gave us EKGs, poked us with IVs and said 'You need to go to Pittsburgh.' "

Brandon and Cierra were taken to Children's Hospital. John and Cindy Graziani went to UPMC Presbyterian, which has two hyperbaric chambers. Among numerous usages, the chambers are employed to reduce carbon monoxide blood levels; pure oxygen is pumped into the chamber, which is pressurized to 2.5 times normal atmospheric pressure.

Unfortunately, there are some risks, including that of ear pain or rupture of the eardrum. None of the Grazianis -- both children were brought from Children's to Presby but Cierra wasn't put into it because she didn't pass out -- tolerated it well, doctors said.

"They wanted three treatments but only did one," Mr. Graziani said. Because of ear discomfort, Brandon was in the chamber only a half-hour, his mom for about 20 minutes, and his dad for about an hour and a half.

It was worth a try, said Dr. Kenneth Katz, chief of the division of medical toxicology at Presby.

"In theory, [hyperbaric medicine theory] it's to reduce neurologic consequences in the future," Dr. Katz said. "It's unclear what the absolute benefits are. ...

"There's data to support it and there's data not to support it. There's some that supports it and we have the facility and we think it might be the best thing to do at this point.

"We give antibiotics for pneumonia. We know that works. This isn't so clear-cut."

He's right, said Dr. Katz's colleague, Dr. Ron Roth, a University of Pittsburgh medical school professor and an emergency physician at Presby.

"But, obviously, since we do it, both toxicology and hyperbaric [departments], we think it works. It seems to make sense. [Carbon monoxide] is a poison in the blood ... and it gets the poison out much quicker.

"It takes five hours of breathing regular air for that [level] to be cut in half. ... On the other hand, if we put you in the chamber, we reduce the half-life to 20 minutes."

The Grazianis are slowly recovering.

"We're very tired ... very tired," John Graziani said last week. "My son and I have headaches. It's hard to concentrate. I drift away real easily. We took my son and daughter to a local pediatrician. They want him to see a neurologist for any long-term [effects]."

Dr. Roth said such "neuropsychiatric issues" or "delayed neurologic sequelae" happen to between 10 and 50 percent of people exposed to carbon monoxide. They can include headaches, problems with thinking, problems with math, and mood issues.

"Apparently most people will eventually recover from it," he said. The Grazianis' animals seem to be fine.

In the meantime, the source of the carbon monoxide leak has been traced to a plugged vent on the Grazianis' gas furnace, Mr. Graziani said.

The battery is in the carbon monoxide/smoke detector.

"We'll never take the battery out of it again," Mr. Graziani said. "We'll get a few more [CO detectors] and some fire alarms as well."