CO's action is not purely competitive. Its binding at one binding site influences the three other sites to bind oxygen so strongly that oxygen won't dissociate from the complex where it is needed; In tissues, starving them of oxygen.
Yes you can...
http://www.remsaeducation.com/news/carbon-monoxide-poisoning...
Intuitively most people would think that just stopping to breathe CO is sufficient and breathing fresh air would displace it as quickly as with other common gasses (i.e. you may cough for a bit but recover in minutes) but the point is that CO is clingy.
EDIT: Elsewhere you agree with the assessment that the half-life under "fresh air" is somewhere around 4 hours, so I think you would agree that "just breathe fresh air for a bit" (implying minutes, maybe an hour) isn't a satisfactory treatment in serious cases.
You should absolutely seek medical treatment if you suspect you have been exposed to CO. I'm not trying to make light of that. My point is simply that CO is not actually as "clingy" as some in this thread are making it out to be.
I am a paramedic. We carry a portable CO meter on our "BLS bag" (the bag that gets brought in on the vast majority of calls), because more than once a "general illness" call has turned out to be CO poisoning.
Do you carry other equipment for personal protection like that (or the long version - what's in the bag!?)?
We are a combination fire/EMS agency, so I am also a firefighter, with all the gear that goes along with that.
As far as the bags go, we have three main bags:
-The "BLS" or "Airway" bag, which contains a lot of "basic" equipment (bandages, oxygen, some common meds, etc), as well as more advanced airway management equipment (laryngoscopes and endotracheal intubation tubes, etc).
-The "ALS" or "Med" bag, which contains all ~30 medications we carry, as well as IV fluids and all the necessary pointy things to get medications into people.
-The "Pediatric" or "Peds" bag, which contains most of the same stuff as the other two bags, just in smaller quantities, and sized for kids.
There are also a few other more specialized bags (the burn bag, the trauma bag, etc), and portable equipment (portable heart monitor[3], suction[4], etc)
[1]: Stock photo of a standard "class b" uniform: https://www.lansinguniform.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/Fi...
[2]: https://www.spservices.co.uk/images/products/pics/1407156050...
[3]: http://www.physio-control.com/ProductDetails.aspx?id=2147484...
[4]: https://www.boundtree.com/s-scort-iii-suction-unit-596400-ph...
I'm not trying to suggest that more advanced treatment is never necessary (I am the person who provides that treatment...), my point is simply that there are _many_ people who experience low level, chronic exposures to carbon monoxide that require no further treatment than leaving the environment.
You can't just go outside to get fresh air since the CO just won't let go.
I believe the normal way it works is oxygen and carbon dioxide use different sections of hemoglobin molecule so they never interfere with the way each are transported. But CO hogs it all oxygen has no chance of affixing to hemoglobin since there is nowhere to stick.