Chased out by Mold

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http://www.sacbee.com/content/news/story/7875817p-8815073c.html

Chased out by mold

A young couple flee their new home, fearing that is where their son's illnesses originated.

By Jocelyn Wiener -- Bee Staff WriterPublished 2:15 a.m. PST Sunday, November 30, 2003

Tyler Hamre moved into his house in Calaveras County a healthy 2-year-old. Six months later he moved out, suffering from bronchitis, asthma and pneumonia. In his new apartment in Rocklin, Tyler, now 3, wakes each morning to chew vitamins and antibiotics and take a puff from his inhaler. In the evenings, he swallows liquid antibiotics. And every week or so, he talks to a child psychologist about a poison he doesn't understand. Toxic mold. The term itself remains controversial as scientists and health officials try to determine if linkages exist between mold toxins and respiratory problems.

McNeel can't offer specifics on the number of people who have become ill living in moldy buildings, but she says that in the past five or six years, complaints to her department have multiplied significantly. In August 2002, Tyler's parents, , 29, and Suzanne, 25, bought their first house in a new development in Valley Springs, a rural community about 40 minutes east of Stockton. In January, Tyler's day-care provider called Suzanne, a certified nursing assistant, at work. "Tyler's real sick," they said. "He's throwing up and acting really weird." When Suzanne and Tyler arrived home, he seemed to feel better. To pass the afternoon, she decided to unpack a box of his baby clothes. "I saw the box and clothes were all green and wet," she said. The box was resting next to Tyler's crib. She also found mold on the floor beneath it. Concerned, Suzanne took Tyler to the doctor that day. An X-ray showed a suspicious spot on his lung, and a blood draw on herself revealed high mold exposure. took an air sample with a home test kit. The results, he said, suggested high levels of penicillium mold. Complicating the unfolding problem, a few days later , a Marine reservist, was recalled to active duty. He was told to report for duty in five days. Before he left on Feb. 13, said, he called the contractor with Jack Construction, the company that had sold him the house. "I said, 'These are the problems I'm having. Can you help me?' " he said. The couple said a contractor came to the home and removed Sheetrock from Tyler's bedroom, unknowingly contaminating the house with mold spores. The parade of people who came through the house in the following days, they said, offered unsettling revelations: undisclosed water leaks, shoddy workmanship. called attorney Graves, who specializes in real estate misrepresentation cases. Graves hired Hygiene Tech to test the house. Among the reported findings were high levels of penicillium, aspergillus, and Stachybotrys chartarum -- all known to produce toxins and cause allergies. "The doctor contacted Suzanne and said, 'You need to leave the house right now,' " said. "Tyler and Suzanne walked out of the house with the clothes on their backs and the two dogs and never went back." The Hamres' legal struggle began then, with stationed hundreds of miles away in Miramar, providing support for the war in Iraq. Every night, Suzanne talked to him on the phone about Tyler's health and their financial problems. felt outraged. And helpless. "This is the issue that really sticks in my craw," Graves said. "The easiest thing (Jack Construction) could have done from the beginning was to find a suitable place for the Hamres to live, and they didn't do that." Jack Construction declined to comment for this report. Kate Segerstrom, an attorney representing Jack 's partner, Henson, said Henson is willing to negotiate. "We keep hearing about the Hamres' stress, which we've been trying to mitigate by buying the house back," she said. She said she is waiting for the Hamres to decide their terms. "It seems like it's taking longer than normal," she said. "And to have it play it out in the newspapers doesn't accomplish anything for the Hamres." Graves said he requested months ago that and Henson provide the Hamres with housing. Suzanne quit her job and, for a time, stayed at a friend's house in Antelope, where she and Tyler slept on the floor. The rest of the time, they shared a twin bed in her grandparents' house in Roseville. In March, the Hamres' insurance company hired a representative of Five Star Construction to evaluate the Valley Springs property. He concluded that improperly installed parts of the exterior walls allowed water to seep under the foundation. "I would consider this faulty installation by the builder," he wrote in a letter to Farmers Insurance. In light of the assessment, the Hamres said, the insurance company denied their claims for damages. In April, Suzanne took a new job and sent Tyler to day care. But she quit two weeks later after Tyler caught another child's cold and developed bronchitis and pneumonia. The effects on Tyler were not only physical, his parents say. Although they say he generally has a sunny disposition, he regularly retreats to a corner or a bedroom to cry. "All of the sudden he'll disappear, and he'll tell you he's sad, and you'll ask him why, and he'll tell you he doesn't know," Suzanne said. "The psychologist says it's everything that's happened to him. He talks about the house a lot." Meanwhile, Suzanne has been sick with bronchitis, pneumonia, flu and asthma. "I feel that a significant component of her respiratory problems is due to a sensitization to mold spores," her doctor, Frederic Herman of Roseville, wrote in a letter listing her various ailments. In October, pneumonia so impeded Suzanne's breathing she was told to choose between hospitalization or steroid treatment. She was seven months pregnant with her second child, Ethan. But Tyler needed her, she said, so she took the steroids. About that time, the Marines deactivated so he could take care of his family. The couple moved into the Rocklin apartment, which costs them $955 a month on top of their $1,716 mortgage payment. returned to work at the East Contra Costa Fire Protection District, where he tries to earn as much overtime as possible. Friends and neighbors have helped with necessities. A futon. An armchair. A TV. A quilting group gave them quilts for Tyler and baby Ethan, who is expected in mid-December. Veterans groups have raised thousands of dollars and opened a registry at Target for Ethan. , an attorney who in 2001 won a $2.7 million settlement for a mold case in Sacramento County, the largest award for a mold case in U.S. history, has joined the Hamres' case as co-counsel. In the precedent-setting 2001 case, 's clients, a family of three living in an apartment on Watt Avenue, sued a property management company and two investors for ignoring their claims of health problems resulting from mold in their rental unit. That same year, California passed the Toxic Mold Protection Act requiring the Department of Health Services to set exposure limits and standards for assessing and remediating mold found in buildings. Since passage of that law, hundreds of local residents have been part of mold-related lawsuits involving apartments, houses and businesses. said he will seek the fair market value of the Hamres' home in the absence of defects, compensation for the cost of replacing personal property and $1 million to $3 million dollars for personal injuries. The spot on Tyler's lung, he said, likely is caused by a colonization of aspergillus mold, which may lead to permanent lung damage and scarring. He said Tyler is likely to have lifelong asthma and hypersensitivity to mold. said the issue of mold contamination continues to be prevalent throughout the region. "In my opinion, it's based primarily on the fact that the builders are building homes too quickly, and the houses are poorly constructed," he said. But McNeel, the state's mold expert, said a building could be susceptible to mold at any time. "Just about every phase of a building's age and operation allows it to become exposed to water and moisture control problems," she said. Meanwhile, the Valley Springs house remains suspended in the moment the Hamres left -- their furniture and family photographs remain quarantined inside. sometimes stops to peek through a window. "We're hoping to build our lives back together and move on from this," said. "In the meantime, we just have to take it one day at a time."

Want to help?Donations may be sent either of these locations:

* The Schools Financial Credit Union c/o the Hamre Family P.O. Box 51500 Sacramento CA 95851 * Hamre Family 1079 Sunrise Ave. Suite B P.O. Box 223 Roseville CA 95661

About the Writer---------------------------The Bee's Jocelyn Wiener can be reached at (916) 773-6846 or jwiener@....