AN INVESTIGATION is under way after a suspected carbon monoxide leak left a nursing auxiliary on the brink of death.

Vera Walker suffered a seizure on Monday when she was overcome by what the family believed were toxic fumes from a central heating boiler in the kitchen of her home in Middlehope Grove, Bishop Auckland, County Durham.

When her husband, Alan, returned home from a doctor's appointment, she collapsed in his arms and was rushed to Bishop Auckland Hospital.

Still stunned by her experience, 57-year-old Mrs Walker has been told not to drive for 12 months.

She said: "Doctors told me that another 20 minutes and I would have been dead. If Alan had been here we might both have died."

The Health and Safety Executive launched an investigation yesterday and experts have begun examining the family's boiler.

The appliance had been maintained under a service agreement with British Gas since August 1997, and was last serviced in the summer.

The family have a detector at home, which showed up black to indicate the presence of carbon monoxide - dubbed the silent killer in a campaign backed by The Northern Echo.

The family intends taking legal advice over the matter.

Mr Walker said: "We are angry because we thought we had done everything right. We always had a carbon monoxide detector and this is the first time one had turned black.

"I was 20 minutes from losing my wife."

British Gas declined to comment on the incident last night because of the investigation.

A spokeswoman for Transco said the company was helping the Health and Safety Executive with its investigation.

"Transco operates the 24-hour gas emergency service, responding to all reported gas leaks as well as suspected carbon monoxide fumes," she said