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Newburyport Family Survives CO Scare

NEWBURYPORT (CBS) -- The week before Christmas they're celebrating a second chance.

Sunday morning started as a blur for one Newburyport household.

"I just woke up and I had a headache and I heard the beeping form the carbon monoxide," said Anne-Margaret Bushnell, who was sleeping on the second floor. She then went to wake up her 14-year-old son Kyle.

"My head hurts, my stomach hurts, so I'm looking around seeing what's happening and I hear my mom fall on the ground," said Kyle, who called 9-1-1 before he also collapsed.

Thanks to Kyle's dad Gordon Bushnell, the family of five is alive.

WBZ-TV's Alana Gomez reports

Gordon rushed into action telling his two younger sons to run to the neighbor's house. After that he carried out his wife Anne-Margaret and his son Kyle out of the house.

"Then the CO2 got to him and he fell down and said I'm too tired," said Kyle.

Paramedics rushed the family to a local hospital, and firefighters said the Bushnell's would've died without Gordon's quick thinking.

"When you see 999 on the detector we normally say, 'Oh God that's a faulty detector,'" said Lt. John Kelleher with the Newburyport Fire Department. "It was faulty; it's just the readings were so high in the house."

It turns out a cracked furnace in the basement was leaking carbon monoxide. After their close call, the Bushnell's added a detector to each level of their house on top of the one that went off in the basement.

"I'm just glad my dad was able to get me and my mom out and everyone out and he's going to be ok," said Kyle, who said his dad was the only one who had to stay at the hospital for observation.

"It's a Christmas miracle that we're all here we're all alive and we're all together," said Anne-Margaret.

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