Carbon monoxide attaches to red blood cells, robbing oxygen from your body it needs to live. It combines with these cells over 200 times more easily than oxygen, creating a condition known as carboxyhemoglobin saturation.
Carbon monoxide, on lieu of oxygen, then gets taken to the important organs through the bloodstream. In short, carbon monoxide starves your body of oxygen. Organs have to have oxygen; when they lack it, they begin to suffocate.
It takes your body a long time to eradicate carbon monoxide; however, it can be taken in much faster.