Health and Men

The Effects Of Toxic Mold On A Canadian Family

by Scott on December 5th, 2007

I got a responce to my Mold post and I want to share this with anyone that may be of help and/or knows what it is like to go through the same thing. This is quite long, but please read it if you have the time.

Toxic Mould, The Cost on a Family and City Negligence
This letter comes with desperation of great help in our battle against a corrupt city who has cost us years of quality life: First off I want to thank you for taking time to read this. I know it is lengthy but I feel I must share as much information as I can in order for you to see the need assistance and/or advice. In March of 1992 my husband and I decided we were ready to venture into the world of home owners and with our two young daughters in tow (2 1/2 and 8 months old) we did just that. We bought our first home in Surrey, BC Canada and felt we were living the North American dream. Little did we know what was in store. The little dream home we thought we bought was soon to be our nightmare…… The home was built sometime in the 1960’s we were told but that didn’t stop us since we felt we could take this place and slowly renovate to represent who we were. It was not until the fall of 1992 that we had our first encounter of what had been going on with this house and property since the home was built. We woke one day to find the front part and sides of our house surrounded by 4 ft. of water which had filled the crawl space entirely. I was not only concerned for this but for the safety of my babies who I had to watch to make sure they did not open the front door and end up in water over their head. This puts a whole new perspective to water front property, don’t you think? Thus this situation was not a one time occurance but what we found out later was the usual. We were appalled, shocked and quite upset. I placed calls to the city and all they would do “during the flood” I might add is send someone from city works to come out, flash their lights on the water, put a barracade over the road where flooding started and then leave us. Finally I took this to a lawyer in Cloverdale to be told there was no law at the time stating the previous owners had to disclose this. Second of all, we could try going against the city but it would cost us thousands in legal bills we couldn’t afford. The lawyer then told us, we would not stand a chance of winning because the city had the high price lawyers working for them and that basically it was a losing battle. We couldn’t afford by this time being locked in to a new mortgage to turn around and sell, and re-buy adding on more real estate and legal fees to do so. We felt no choice but to stay put hoping in good faith the city would eventually hear us with all our calls and eventually several visits from local media television news to assess the flooding and air it on tv. We found that the most help because the media stations would show the problem but then would also go back to the city interviewing them about what they were going to do for us. There were many promises of improvements, etc but they never fullfilled any of their promises. I finally started trying to do my own paperwork trail by contacting the receptionist of city hall who had a kind spot and sent me a letter from the previous owners dating back to 1968 asking the city to deal with the flooding that was emcompassing their house, washing away personal items in their carport and leaving them to have to wade through water up to their hips to get out and salvage their things in the middle of the night. They talked about how firemen had to get boats in to get the neighbors next door off the roof of their home. I was shocked to discover this letter was written in 1968 and living in a city in a non-flood plain area that the city could get away with this year after year. they never had a problem charging us high property taxes and leaving the occupants in this home at risk as well as the destruction of their personal property, home and contents. That is the background on what had occured. Now I would like to share the affects both financially as well as and more importantly the health affects: Unbeknownst to us as I stated at the beginning of this letter we had a mould problem in our home and had I known, would never have bought. I still was unaware that it was not only dangerous but can be so toxic it can kill a person. However, when we moved in we did smell a musty smell and as a young mother I worked diligently while my girls were sleeping at night to scrub every inch of the place down with tsp and other cleaners and eventually I just either was desensitized to the smell or I had cleaned enough with cleaners to hide it. However, one month after moving into our home I became quite ill and was so weak I couldn’t function at the high level of perfectionism I had before. Unable to get off the couch I was so weak, I would have to sit the girls beside me on the couch with a video on to keep them in one place when my husband was at work. I had many cries going from a mom who was so physically active even mowing our lawn at 9 months pregnant. My doctor ran test after test to try to find out what was wrong and eventually diagnosed me with fibromyalgia and chronic fatigue…..both of which are symptoms of mould exposure. I was unaware as I said that I was breathing in toxins that would cause this let alone not knowing my baby’s too were at risk. This was the outcome………….. My oldest daughter who was 2 1/2 when we moved in ended up diagnosed with asthma which has sense turned into more a problem with sinus infections than asthma. My second oldest who was 8 months old when we moved in there was a very, very sick baby. She was not thriving at that time and the pediatrition, doctor and myself were baffled as to why. She was 14 pounds at that time and would drop a pound in a week or less and nearly hospitalized to have a battery of test ran to find out what the problem was. I was devasted and felt like a useless mom because they thought maybe it was my milk that was not good enough and made me change her over to formula to supplement leaving me feeling like a failure. Even with formula she had so many allergies and her immune system was deficient that she threw up most of what we gave her. She was 8 months old and refused to eat solids so we were told by the pediatrition she had to be force fed. That was in itself traumatic. She had chronic ear problems leading to several surgeries to put tubes in her ears. This also affected her ability to walk so she didn’t even start walking till the day after her tubes were put in at nearly 2 years old. This in turn also affected her hearing which then affects the speech and learning of phonics. To say the least she has struggled a lot with her health due to this. Last year after two years of trying to find out what was wrong she was diagnosed with endometreosis after her last of 3 surgeries. Which by the way usually is genetic and this does not run on either my side or my husbands side of the family. I would place money I don’t have that the mould exposure is the culprit since there is proof it can do damage to all organs of the body and for her this was the effect. As a matter of fact, I had a family member say to me how she wondered for so many years how we could all be so unhealthy when I come from a healthy family. Which also is how it is on my husband’s side. No one has any of these problems what-so-ever, so too much coincidence that it would hit a whole family. Now for my twin boys……they had the unfortunate happening of being born in November of 1993-when the flooding and dampness is the worst-the fall and winter months. They were born healthy, weighing 6, 12 and 7, 9. They had no respiratory issues whatsoever until my doctor sent us home 5 days later. They came down with bronchilitis right away, then leading to rsv and now permanent issues with asthma. Their bouts have been so bad that I have had so many trips to emergency the doctor finally prescribed a nebulizer machine for use at home. My one son has been in the hospital a couple times with asthma when in severe respiratory distress. They now have compromised lungs due to this. My youngest daughter was born in Sept. 1996 and she too has had several health problems. She had sleep apnea which I was unaware of. Due to her always stuffed up and fluid in her ears, nose and throat, she not only suffered from this from a baby on but also with swollen tonsils. Several antibiotics later I still didn’t realize the problem. It was not till she hit preschool that her teacher told me she wasn’t hearing properly.. The doctor then sent me to an ear specialist out of Childrens Hospital who said she not only needed tubes put in, but also her adenoids and tonsils removed because they were so large they were constricting her breathing giving her very severe sleep apnea. When I look back I still see her at only 5 laying there after surgery in great pain and distress realizing none of this was necessary if she had not been exposed to the mould. Several people would say to me, they knew she was suffering just from the dark circles under her eyes. I then realized that all my kids had that problem since we all suffered from the darkness under the eyes. Do I beat myself up as a mom for this? Yes, I have, telling myself if I had only known, that I should have done more but I didn’t. I was not aware till seeing an interview with a family on a tv broadcast who had been through this what the mould was doing to us. From that time I tried harder, knowing we were financially in a bad straight as a one income family raising 5 children and couldn’t move so I battled the city through the media and then I decided since they didn’t care so I had to go about this differently. I did some research and talked to others about what we could do to get rid of the mould and was put in contact with a place that puts in ultraviolet lights connected to the furnace as a air purifier which turns mould into ash. We had that put in and had to pay the 1200.00 for this off our credit line. We hoped so much that would be enough. It wasn’t. This is one reason: The air purifier had to run through the furnace and more times than I can remember our crawl space became so full of water it would fill the heating ducts. The first few times my husband had me convinced it would be fine and we could turn the furnace back on when the water was gone. Little did I know that the stagnant water was still trapped in the ducts and when the furnace was turned back on it would fill the house full of more toxins and mould. It was not until a year later when having Sears come in and do a thorough cleaning of our ducts by going in the crawl space and opening them up that I was made aware there was still water left in there from the year before. BTW, the day after the flood that filled our crawl space and heat was turned on….my youngest came down with bronchial problems and then rsv which put her in the hospital. When Sears saw this, they told us they would have to give it a day to drain because there was so much water in the ducts. A year later, toxic, mouldy, stagnant water going through our whole house!! Now as to a short summary (as short as I can be) on my health and that of my husbands and the affect it has had. (All this is documented through doctors reports). I became as I said ill in the spring of 1992 and my health continued to take a down hill spiral from there. The doctor said I was suffering from depression and encouraged medication but I kept going thinking the depression would pass. With each baby they said I had severe post-partum depression. It landed me in the hospital when my youngest was 5 months old. From there I have had a real hard journey with such severe depression that I have been hospitalized more times than I can remember. There were many suicide attempts too. My children went through hell because of this. It’s only now, that I feel I am finally starting to function at a higher emotional level than I have in years-wonder why?? I’m not faced with taking in toxin mould day in and day out!! I have been so unable to care for my home with being so ill with the chronic fatigue, fibromyalgia and depression that my husband, children and myself lost far too much quality time together and I felt like a failure as a wife and mother. I was unable to keep my home up, take the kids out to do fun things like days at the park. Most of my days were spent sleeping sometimes 75-90% of the time. I moved in this home a healthy, vibrant young mother with many goals and aspirations and now I have several health issues as well as obesitiy due to the fibromyalgia, chronic fatigue and depression. My husband went down hill too. He too suffered from depression and fatigue finding it hard to do anything in the house. This caused great strain on our marriage and years of fighting and unhappiness. He had times when he would try to do reno’s, pull walls off to add on to our addition and then end off work for a month from pneumonia. This could make amytiville horror a picnic, wouldn’t you agree? As for how others were affected….we have seen on more than one occasion cars and even the garbage truck come down our street, unaware that on the road at the deepest point it was nearly 5 feet deep with a huge ditch on our side. The city would be negligent in even barracading the roads if they didn’t feel like taking the time. Therefore drivers thought they could turn around believing it was only a couple inches of water and end up in our very deep ditch. This was the scary part, when it was covered over, there was no way of knowing how deep and that where the ditch was would be over a person’s head. This happened to a 16 year old girl driving home at midnight from a babysitting job. It was 1994 or 1995 (can’t remember) and when she went in, 3/4 of her car was underwater and she had to try to pry the driver door up to get it open and escape. We didn’t hear a thing, only when she knocked on the door and we opened it to find a frightened, cold and wet young girl standing there in shock were we able to put it together what had taken place. Not only was I in touch with the city but so were her parents shocked that the city would let things like this happen. But as usual, it fell on deaf ears. We have kept pictures and video of these horrific times. Recent Events: So now for the past year-On Decmeber 5, 2006 we were having a new furnace put in so I ask for the heating ducts to be cleaned thoroughly once again. The company came out and did this. On December 12, 2006, the furnace was then installed. Then you can guess what happened from there-Flooding on January 3 which once again filled the heating ducts meaning we had no heat since I knew better by now not to run the furnace. I didn’t have another 500.00 to put out on a job already done and a created problem due to city negligence so I contacted the city and put in a damage report. They just sent a letter weeks later saying they were looking into the damage report but they didn’t. We had no heat for 3 months even after phone call after phone call telling them we had no heat and 5 children living in that condition as well. I told them I had no time for them to take their time in doing something. It was then that I was told-3 months to the day when I called to complain (March 3) I had no heat (also no way to combat the mould problem with being unable to use our air purifier) that I was told, “we have talked about it Mrs. Van Egdom and we have decided to do nothing for you. During this time my children became more sick with severe asthma bouts at which times it would leave me fearful I would find my twin boys dead in the morning. I had never, ever seen them so distressed with this condition. I had them on the nebulizer religiously and ended up having them on steriods which also did nothing to help. Doctors as well as physicians out of Children’s Hospital told me I had to get them out of this house. It was March 22 of this year - 2007, we were again hit with the worst flood ever, penetrating into our house and walls, not just in our floor joist and crawl space. And after the city saying they were doing nothing, I gave up taking it over their head and sending out a letter to every politician and the mayor of Surrey, Dianne Watts as to what had been occuring for over 40 years. Within two days I had a call from the city groveling at what they could do. They even sent a restoration company in that stated in writing our floors and walls had moisture throughout and the crawl space was loaded in mould spores. By this time with no air purifier to combat the mould and so much water damage there was lots of visible mould growing on the walls. Not that we haven’t had lots anyway to deal with and clean up. During this time my oldest got very asthmatic as were my boys and I fought all I could to get them out of the house. That was no small feat with there being no organizations out there geared to help with this kind of situation. We lived in two motels and then when the city came back with the answer they refused to fix the house due to a beginning estimate of 15,000.00 minimum to restore the situation and stating they didn’t plan to take action to deal with the flooding problem right away. Therefore, they said they were looking at buying our house and property. They promised fair market value and lied to no surprise. We by this time were aware of how much they play games. I turned down the first offer and they came back with a counter offer only 25,000.00 higher which was still 25,000.00 below market value. I had a realtor come in who told me that there was no need to try to fix anything up or do anything because our house was un-sellable, given the mould problem and the stigma of that being as bad or worse as grow-op homes. She told us we would be unable to even put it on the market till it was fully restored and certified as being mould free. We were stuck living by this time in a rental home we could not afford as well as a mortgage on a home we could not live in, nor sell. Being backed in a corner we had no choice but to accept the offer. This now meant for us that by the time all debt was paid off we couldn’t even start over again in our home city with house prices so high. I decided as an American that I had seen enough and was bitter enough at how people could be treated worse than garbage that not only did I want out of Canada but I knew it was the only way to find a home we could afford. The past 6 months my children have been tossed here and there through 2 motel stays, a temporary move for a week back to the home, then a rental and now another move yet again this past August. My lungs too are now compromised from having to move our things out of the house I was very ashtmatic and on heavy steriods that were not working and was told I would stop breathing in my sleep. I now have been set up to have pulmonary function tests on my lungs in October. We have now had to move 5 hours away-Moses Lake, WA to start over where house prices are lower. My children have not been through enough with their health, the loss of the stability of living in the home they were born in, the loss of their school and friends and so much more not to mention their health. But my 2nd oldest feels she needs to finish school where she has gone all her life and my oldest just started university there so we now have the seperation of our family who were very close as well as having to struggle to rent there for them and a mortgage here. I now have to find a full time job and I don’t feel as far as my health I have the stamina for a full time job yet. My 3 youngest are seperated from their father who has to stay in Canada till he can get papers approving him to live and work down here. And should you need more evidence of the cover up of this…..the city wanted this settled and expedited quickly to get the house. And as you know…they don’t move too fast and yet, within a month or less of buying our home they had it demolished. What does that tell you as to what they are trying to cover up and hide. Oh, and when we went by it also now appears they lied as well about fixing the flooding issues since they seem to be now working on it since they are the prize owners of the two huge city lots they now have possesion of. I want the City of Surrey to stop trying to save face and stand up and tel the county they are sorry and take ownership for what they have done. It is about principles which they know nothing of. They are corrupt and they know they have power leaving many people too afraid to stand up to them. I know we will never have our health fully restored but for me to put closure to what has been done, I need to feel they will not be able to do this to others. I wish I could go back in time and start over with more knowledge. Knowledge of dishonest people, realtors, the city and be able to have that wisdom and not to sit where we are today. This is about letting these corrupt people know they can’t get away with this over and over. They may own the highest priced lawyers and have the power and the law on their side so not to be able to be sued in a court of law but we people have the right to stand up and speak out about injustice. There will be publicity with this I will see to that. I plan to take it to the media everywhere once again as well as to Readers Digest and anyone else who will listen. I have even contacted the media stations who are very interested and are just waiting for my contacts who have background degrees to come forward with me for interviews. I have been in touch with many of the talk shows on National Television and will not stop till this is heard. We had an environmentalists come in and do testing so there is record of that. Also, I am asking for a release of information through the freedom of information act to get all the pertinent information necessary. I will not leave a stone unturned. Any advice or knowledge you can offer would be great. Please pass this on to everyone you know. I have been told by a specialist I sent this to who put in our air purifier that I need to endeavor with all I have to get this out their and published and I will do so. I owe that to my children who will have to deal with all this has cost them both in the past and in their future. We have lost so much including the passing of our family cat from the mould exposure. Thank you so much for taking the time out of your busy schedule and day to read this. I welcome any correspondence and help you can offer~ you will have a very grateful family.

Sincerely, Mrs. Elizabeth Van Egdom bearsrfun@nctv.com

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