My brother has been an HVAC professional for about a decade.
I thought he was the best in the business to be honest because he seemed to know everything.
Well, I was shocked when he ended up in the hospital due to an accident he had while working on some HVAC equipment. Apparently, he was dealing with a serious refrigerant leak to which the customers also had to go to the hospital for exposure to harmful vapors. He did air out the basement, but unfortunately, he himself inhaled some of the vapor and suffered from acute refrigerant poisoning. His airways were burned and he had bloody stools. He was feeling severe pain in his sinuses, nose, and throat. When I visited him, the nurse advised that we keep his talking to a minimum and he needed his rest. He was hooked up to IV fluids and they were doing everything they could to rid the body of any excess refrigerants that were absorbed into his body. He told me he was always so careful over the years, but when he smelled something like fresh cut grass, he knew he had to get out of that basement. Somebody else took on the cleaning up of the basement and took care of the HVAC task that injured my brother. He said he would recover from this and eventually get back out there, but he needed some time, he thought, so he planned on taking a vacation. Fortunately, my brother is going to be okay, but I’m not sure if he should work on any more refrigerant leaks in the future.