Sorry, this is a long one - thanks for any help/advice you can offer!

I moved into a council flat a little while ago - the people who were in there before me were apparantly squatting in the place, and the home was in a poor state of repair really. When I moved in there was a storage heater in my bedroom that was hanging off the wall - the engineer came round to fix it back on the wall but said it would be easier to install a new one. So another appointment was arranged in about a weeks time. That was approx one month ago. When first using the heater I noted that there was a smell in the morning which I put down to the newness, I have had the heater on about 5 nights since and noticed the same smell. Recently I've not used the heater and it was a bit chilly last night so I switched it on. That was about midnight. I stayed awake watching television till approx 1.30am when I turned off the tv and went to sleep. The next thing that happened was 6.40am when I was awoke by my smoke alarm going off - the room was thick with smoke coming from the heater. I jumped out of bed and turned the heater off, opened the window wide to ventilate the room. There were no visible flames, it was an excessive amount of smoke. I called the council's repair line and it went to their out of hours emergency line - I spoke to a very unhelpful man who told me not to worry and this was quite normal as the heater is relatively new and there's an element which burns inside the heater - he said I can use it tonight with no problems - I did mention that to be honest if this was usual then surely the engineer would have mentioned it on installation and that I was reluctant to ever switch the heater on again. He basically told me I was being pathetic - very nice of him. Well I don't know how long the smoke was coming from the heater for, or how long I had been breathing it in, but I had a chesty cough and some shortness of breath. I went to a local NHS walk in centre before work but they sent me to A&E for blood tests on my oxygen levels and toxicity levels. Fortunately the tests came back ok, I also had an ECG and a chest x-ray, I still keep coughing lots, I stopped smoking about 5 years ago but it feels like I chainsmoked about 200 cigarettes last night, not very pleasant. Plus they had to take blood directly from my artery which is really painful. Obviously I'm not putting the heater on now until an engineer has been round on Friday to check it out - my bedroom still smells of the fumes and I've had the window open for 14 hours now, I'm glad that I left my pet mouse in her cage in the front room last night otherwise I'm sure she wouldnot be alive now, and if it wasn't for the smoke alarm who knows if I would be?? I'm certainately putting in a complaint about the man I spoke to on the phone this morning, but do you think I can take it further and if so what steps should I take?? Thanks for reading and for any help/advice you can offer!
Thanks for your reply Girly Electric - I do understand what you have said there - really I think had I not had the smoke alarm that things could have been very different, to the point that I may not be here right now……….I think that they should make a big apology really for the situation and yes you're right the property wasn't damaged, though I've had the window open for 24 hrs and the room still stinks so bad, and I wasn't physically hurt apart from inhaling the fumes - but it's the emotional side of things too, and spending all that time in hospital plus a days loss of earnings

Do you have the instructions for the heater?
I replaced one in January and it said clearly:
Use the heater on full power for the first few days, that the heater would smell and the room should be ventilated and not be occupied especially by pets, birds etc.

If you didn't get the instructions then you could justifiably complain to the installer but if you just plain didn't read them …