need info

[Guest guest]

I have recently joined this group to try to help a friend. She worked for a

restaurant for 5 years and never took a sick day. She was hired as an assist.

manager. The restaurant was one of a chain of restaurants. The building was

leased from a shopping center.

When the rest. opened, it had two leaks. After complaining about them, the

owners of the shopping center had the building re-roofed. Very, very, shoddy

job. Water started pouring in everywhere. Out of 6 air conditioners in this

building, only one worked most of the time. Lots of water and lots of humidity.

Black mold started growing everywhere. We are in FL. Lots of rain and

lots of need of air conditioning! The wall paper started falling off the walls.

The 3 upper managers were fired and all of the responsibility of running this

250 seat buffet rest. came down on the shoulders of two (admittedly) stupid

naive women. They had to staple the wall paper back to the wall. The ceiling

tiles were all stained. The bathroom flooded every time it rained and had to

have the water scooped into a huge trash can and rolled outside. When it

rained, water poured out of the light fixtures in the kitchen. Pleas for help

were ignored. The two women were told that if they arranged repairs without

corp. OK, they had to pay for it.

Fast forward to end of 2001. Former assist. manager, now a manager, was

told to do whatever it took to make the worst wall look good. Rip down the

paper and paint the wall. This was the worst wall in the building. This lady

attempts to do this by taking a broom and brushing the wall down and then

ripping the paper back and scrubbing behind it with bleach and water. She

couldn't breathe. She held her left arm over her mouth and nose and scrubbed

with her right hand. After about an hour, she saw that she was getting no where

and stapled the paper back up and cleaned up for opening of the restaurant.

Three days later, the corp. closed the restaurant and had the most senior

employees stay and clean for one week. The pictures were stuck to the wall

with mold and mildew. The wall paper in all of the rooms had black mold

behind it. Pink mold was growing on the ceiling in one room.

Two days later, she starts feeling very sick. Temp. goes to 104. Migraines

start. She aches all over. She can't walk, talk, or eat. Hospital first diagnoses

flu and sends her home. Everything gets worse. She is sure that she is dying.

She has her husband take her back to hospital. She is put in isolation. Infec-

tious disease doctors parade in and out. Everyone is wearing a mask. The

doctors suspect Anthrax. She can't stand the light her eyes hurt so much. Questions, questions, questions. Have you been out of the country? Do you have any pets? On and on. After 2 or 3 days, someone comes in her room at 12:30 AM and does a spinal tap. Viral meningitis was diagnosed and everyone takes off their masks. Six more days in the hospital loaded down with steroids and she is released. Medical insurance has paid the bills and patient has "improved" to the point that she only suffers from chronic fatigue, short-term memory loss, a horrible, rare form of seborrhea covers her face and neck, and headaches! She can't remember how to spell, she has trouble carrying on a

conversation, she goes to the store and comes out and can't remember what

her car looks like, etc., etc.

Restaurant closed. She was hospitalized. Out of work for a year and she

sees a forensic show on toxic mold. All of a sudden, she understands what

very possibly happened to her!

Now, she has no employer and she has missed the time limit for submitting

a WC claim. She wasn't hired to climb a ladder, strip wall paper, scrub walls,

paint, etc. She was hired to be a manager. The headquarters knew they were closing this restaurant when they told her to do these things to save them money in having to hire someone that was experienced in doing these things.

Talk about criminogenic behavior! How does our WC allow employers like

this to hide behind them?!

Does anyone have ANY advice that will help?

Thanks! And God bless all of you that are going through this horrible mess!

R. C. Wood