This
is about my family of three: Jesse (that is myself), Summer (my wife) and my daughter,
Ireland. Our family was exposed to toxic mold while living in an apartment
building. The Landlord did not take care of it properly. If a person chooses to
do the right thing from the beginning, it is making sure they are taking care
of their fellow man... that is the existence of a human being. Unfortunately,
we did not reap that humanity. My family got very sick from it, we lost over
90% of our stuff because not only does mold get into everything, but it is a
silent killer. We got out, however, a lifetime of damage has been done physically,
mentally and we were hit hard financially. My wife is still sick; she has
swollen lymph nodes all over her left upper side of her body, still does not
breathe correctly and has changed completely from her old self. My daughter has
now been diagnosed with various things and has breathing issues and lymph nodes
of her own. We do not take your donations lightly, and will put all proceeds
towards the lawyers’ fees and making sure that he cannot rent this apartment to
someone else without properly fixing it!
After getting sick in September with what we thought was
just a simple illness, our nightmare came to a head. We were living in what we
thought was a safe environment for our family..yet we were living within a
toxic situation that was unknown to us. Mold is a silent killer. The everyday
house hold normally just produces over the counter treatable allergies,
however, the dangerous stuff is what will turn your world upside down.
We lived in the apartment for 5 years. Three of those 5 years into living there, were slowly starting to hurt us, without our own knowledge. Our daughter started having major problems with constant ear infections, strep throat infections and croup; almost on a monthly basis. We were not sure what was going on, however the constant doctor trips were starting to worry us. When our daughters 6th birthday hit, she had croup again. This was the 3rd time in 4 months. Our allergies were constant, even during the winter, but we attributed it to a simple cold. Fast forward a year later, when our daughter had croup a total of 9 times, being hospitalized for it, we thought something was up. We were going to bring it up at her annual school physical, and then Summer, fell sick.
It started to go downhill September 2013. Mid-September, we found mold crawling up the corner of our east bedroom wall. Not just a small mildew patch, but a black and green fuzzy substance that was about two and a half feet up the wall. This only came about because Summer decided to rearrange our room. Upon pulling our iron based bed frame away from the wall, that is what we found. We called our landlord to report it, he told us to spray it with bleach and that would take care of it. A) treating mold with bleach is not a viable option, as it aggravates the spores (we found this out a lot later after an environmental inspector informed us) and B) We should not have mold like this in our household. However, we did as he said and hoped it would take care of it. Two weeks later, Summer started to have breathing issues. We attributed it to the pollen and grass cutting, yet, our daughter was sick again, with croup. While the information was not clicking yet, it was being noticed. My wife’s “allergies” did not get better. She was to the point now that she was gasping for air. Summer has never had asthma, breathing issues or anything wrong with her lungs or bronchial area in her life. She has done multiple long distance walks for charity, loves to go hiking and chase after our daughter, Ireland. So this actually started to worry me. She went to her primary doctor to find out what to do, they told her it was allergies and gave her nasonex and told her to take claratin. However, around 12 hours later she was breathing as if she was drowning. When she left the house, she got somewhat better, but would get worse upon return. Still, not putting two and two together, the day after Halloween, I told her to go to the Dr. again. She called and told them she could not breathe, that she was gasping for air. They told her to go straight to our local medical center and get a chest x-ray stat; they would be waiting for her arrival. She called me in tears, scared, as she had never dealt with anything like this before. I remember her telling me, “people who have asthma attacks, I don’t know how they do this! This is terrible and would not wish this on my worst enemy”. Twenty minutes later I get a phone call that her left lung has a lot of fluid in it and they have DX’d her with pneumonia. She was a nervous wreck, but took heart to what they said about rest, taking the medication and rest. A week passed and she was not getting better. She was still the same, but now put on numerous inhalers and medication. After a few more weeks, there was no real change. She was given a stronger anti-biotic and another inhaler to compliment the rescue ones.
My wife, anyone that knows her, she doesn’t sit down. Constantly on the go for others or our family. Always moving!! She doesn’t take the word “No” very well when it comes to making sure people are taken care of. She still ran our household and performed her duties as a Girl Scout leader and volunteer at our daughter’s school all while sleeping in the living room as she could not breathe properly in the bed. During the couple of weeks, she mentioned to me that the laundry area had strange spots showing up on the wall. After her Dr’s appointment with the pulmonologist, who suggested if there was any leaks or water damage, it would be every reason for mold brewing, I went and looked, not only was there spots everywhere, but there were various colored “dripped” areas on the drywall. This prompted us to both search the rest of the apartment. We found that in our bedroom, the mold that had been cleaned off was coming back. We then went to inspect our daughter’s room. We pulled her bed away from the wall, and my wife physically screamed. Crawling up the wall, was the same substance that was in our bedroom, but larger. It was also present on the east and north baseboards. Again, it could not be seen upon just walking into her room as the head board and foot board are solid wood. So, with it flush against the wall, it could not be seen. Trust me however; this is not something that could be unseen. This explained SO MUCH. Why my daughter was currently sick, why my wife wasn’t getting better. Many a nights she slept with Ireland, as our daughter was (and still is) extremely worried about her mom. They were just breathing that in… constantly.
We called the Landlord, and he said the same thing: Spray it with bleach. I told him no, I wanted it to be looked at and something done, as it was in other areas of the house and coming back in our bedroom. It took him a week and a half to tell me that he would come over and do a walk-though. Yet he did not come himself. He sent someone in his place who was apparently the “handyman of the apartments”. Either way, the “games” began. The he said/she said battle of what was going began from the Landlord telling us a completely different story than what happened that night (yet we have other people who can attest, that were there that night), to the drips in various colors and heights were negligence of us splashing laundry soap and softener on the walls; albeit 9ft high. To our beds being against the wall causes no air flow, to because we had cranks on the windows of the apartment and the cold air outside brings moisture into the house and that was causes mold. Also, that cat tuffs of cat hair on the carpet can also cause mold. Everything was our fault. No option to fix it, just spray it with bleach and cop it to you did this from some issue listed above. We moved out, albeit still paying rent, November 24, 2013. I called and told my wife to pack some stuff and take our daughter and go to her parents’ house. For weeks, we went round and round to get him to fix it. Finally, I told him that I wanted it taken care of so that we could move back in before Christmas. He had a company come and replace dry wall under our daughters window. Not remediation, but just cut out drywall and take that at face value. Not taking care of the laundry room, our bedroom or even the correct spots in our daughter’s bedroom. I went to inspect the work he told me was completed and saw that it was not taken care of properly. I took pictures and told him again, it was not properly taken care of. This is when he became abusive and started calling my place of employment and even showed up there and started yelling at me and cursing at me telling me he did take care of the problem. I told him I wanted a certified receipt from the company stating it was properly re-mediated. He wouldn’t provide it; said he only had receipt of payment. I told him I would not move back in, until I reviewed that report.
We lived in the apartment for 5 years. Three of those 5 years into living there, were slowly starting to hurt us, without our own knowledge. Our daughter started having major problems with constant ear infections, strep throat infections and croup; almost on a monthly basis. We were not sure what was going on, however the constant doctor trips were starting to worry us. When our daughters 6th birthday hit, she had croup again. This was the 3rd time in 4 months. Our allergies were constant, even during the winter, but we attributed it to a simple cold. Fast forward a year later, when our daughter had croup a total of 9 times, being hospitalized for it, we thought something was up. We were going to bring it up at her annual school physical, and then Summer, fell sick.
It started to go downhill September 2013. Mid-September, we found mold crawling up the corner of our east bedroom wall. Not just a small mildew patch, but a black and green fuzzy substance that was about two and a half feet up the wall. This only came about because Summer decided to rearrange our room. Upon pulling our iron based bed frame away from the wall, that is what we found. We called our landlord to report it, he told us to spray it with bleach and that would take care of it. A) treating mold with bleach is not a viable option, as it aggravates the spores (we found this out a lot later after an environmental inspector informed us) and B) We should not have mold like this in our household. However, we did as he said and hoped it would take care of it. Two weeks later, Summer started to have breathing issues. We attributed it to the pollen and grass cutting, yet, our daughter was sick again, with croup. While the information was not clicking yet, it was being noticed. My wife’s “allergies” did not get better. She was to the point now that she was gasping for air. Summer has never had asthma, breathing issues or anything wrong with her lungs or bronchial area in her life. She has done multiple long distance walks for charity, loves to go hiking and chase after our daughter, Ireland. So this actually started to worry me. She went to her primary doctor to find out what to do, they told her it was allergies and gave her nasonex and told her to take claratin. However, around 12 hours later she was breathing as if she was drowning. When she left the house, she got somewhat better, but would get worse upon return. Still, not putting two and two together, the day after Halloween, I told her to go to the Dr. again. She called and told them she could not breathe, that she was gasping for air. They told her to go straight to our local medical center and get a chest x-ray stat; they would be waiting for her arrival. She called me in tears, scared, as she had never dealt with anything like this before. I remember her telling me, “people who have asthma attacks, I don’t know how they do this! This is terrible and would not wish this on my worst enemy”. Twenty minutes later I get a phone call that her left lung has a lot of fluid in it and they have DX’d her with pneumonia. She was a nervous wreck, but took heart to what they said about rest, taking the medication and rest. A week passed and she was not getting better. She was still the same, but now put on numerous inhalers and medication. After a few more weeks, there was no real change. She was given a stronger anti-biotic and another inhaler to compliment the rescue ones.
My wife, anyone that knows her, she doesn’t sit down. Constantly on the go for others or our family. Always moving!! She doesn’t take the word “No” very well when it comes to making sure people are taken care of. She still ran our household and performed her duties as a Girl Scout leader and volunteer at our daughter’s school all while sleeping in the living room as she could not breathe properly in the bed. During the couple of weeks, she mentioned to me that the laundry area had strange spots showing up on the wall. After her Dr’s appointment with the pulmonologist, who suggested if there was any leaks or water damage, it would be every reason for mold brewing, I went and looked, not only was there spots everywhere, but there were various colored “dripped” areas on the drywall. This prompted us to both search the rest of the apartment. We found that in our bedroom, the mold that had been cleaned off was coming back. We then went to inspect our daughter’s room. We pulled her bed away from the wall, and my wife physically screamed. Crawling up the wall, was the same substance that was in our bedroom, but larger. It was also present on the east and north baseboards. Again, it could not be seen upon just walking into her room as the head board and foot board are solid wood. So, with it flush against the wall, it could not be seen. Trust me however; this is not something that could be unseen. This explained SO MUCH. Why my daughter was currently sick, why my wife wasn’t getting better. Many a nights she slept with Ireland, as our daughter was (and still is) extremely worried about her mom. They were just breathing that in… constantly.
We called the Landlord, and he said the same thing: Spray it with bleach. I told him no, I wanted it to be looked at and something done, as it was in other areas of the house and coming back in our bedroom. It took him a week and a half to tell me that he would come over and do a walk-though. Yet he did not come himself. He sent someone in his place who was apparently the “handyman of the apartments”. Either way, the “games” began. The he said/she said battle of what was going began from the Landlord telling us a completely different story than what happened that night (yet we have other people who can attest, that were there that night), to the drips in various colors and heights were negligence of us splashing laundry soap and softener on the walls; albeit 9ft high. To our beds being against the wall causes no air flow, to because we had cranks on the windows of the apartment and the cold air outside brings moisture into the house and that was causes mold. Also, that cat tuffs of cat hair on the carpet can also cause mold. Everything was our fault. No option to fix it, just spray it with bleach and cop it to you did this from some issue listed above. We moved out, albeit still paying rent, November 24, 2013. I called and told my wife to pack some stuff and take our daughter and go to her parents’ house. For weeks, we went round and round to get him to fix it. Finally, I told him that I wanted it taken care of so that we could move back in before Christmas. He had a company come and replace dry wall under our daughters window. Not remediation, but just cut out drywall and take that at face value. Not taking care of the laundry room, our bedroom or even the correct spots in our daughter’s bedroom. I went to inspect the work he told me was completed and saw that it was not taken care of properly. I took pictures and told him again, it was not properly taken care of. This is when he became abusive and started calling my place of employment and even showed up there and started yelling at me and cursing at me telling me he did take care of the problem. I told him I wanted a certified receipt from the company stating it was properly re-mediated. He wouldn’t provide it; said he only had receipt of payment. I told him I would not move back in, until I reviewed that report.
Within the weeks to follow, my daughter had croup again, my
wife was still not better and multiple visits to the apartment after being
gone, I started to show signs of issue when I went in. I would come out covered
in rashes on my legs and hands when I left. I was not the only one. My wife’s
co leader for the troop, was in the apartment all of 10 minutes and started to
have breathing issues and became so flushed she had to leave when going in and retrieving
something for my daughter. This is how bad it was just from being in the
apartment a short time. So something was obviously brewing within the walls.
When he still, after meeting him there with an apparent inspector, along with
my in-laws and my father, would not fix the issue, I told him that I would not
be moving back in until a professional company took care of the issue. A week
later, we got a letter in the mail that stated he was not going to renew our
lease and we had a little over 35 days to remove our belongings. While we had a
small army to help us, we had an environmental inspector come in, to prove our
notions, along with a remediation company come in to see if our stuff could be
saved. The outcome: the inspector found “unmeasurable
amounts of mold and mold spores within the air quality and it was uninhabitable
without remediation” and the report showed 7 different molds present within our
living space. The remediation company quoted $10,900.00 to fix the apartment so
that someone could live there. He also advised that anything that was not a
hard surface would not be safe to keep. That meant our mattresses, box springs;
couches, pillows, groceries, stuffed animals, books, blankets, etc had to be
tossed. All of it. What we could save would have to be washed properly with a solution
and put into storage.
For months, we lived out of our duffle bag on Summer’s parents
couch and floor. In the meantime, trying
to find a lawyer, who had knowledge of mold issues who could help us. This was
not an easy task. Yet, after weeks of interviewing various lawyers who said
they would not take the case because of who our landlord was, we found one who
is amazing. She has a background in myotoxins and environmental law. She has a
background with mold cases and knows her stuff. But, after having to pay for
the supplies to clean, storage units, dump fees, laundry mats to wash our
clothes with mold detergents, medical and so much more, how were we to afford
this too? So here we are. We are pretty
short on funds and seriously want to bring light to what an issue mold is….but
cannot fully afford the lawyer costs without help.
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