Mold in Toledo house prevents crucial organ transplant

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Article published Thursday, April 10, 2008

Mold in Toledo house prevents crucial organ transplant

Crawford Ave. couple want relief from city

Toledo Blade - Toledo,OH*

http://toledoblade.com/apps/pbcs.dll/articleAID=/20080410/NEWS32/8041

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Water and sometimes sewage have rushed into the basement at 539 West

Crawford Ave. at least eight times since 2006, when flooding from

nearby Shantee Creek caused havoc in the West Toledo neighborhood.

Mold has taken hold in the modest one-story house Tim and Bonnie

Kalka inherited 14 years ago, and on which they owe more than

$40,000.

And that mold is at the root of Mrs. Kalka's inability to get a

pancreas transplant at Cleveland Clinic. She said she cannot return

to such a house for at least three months after surgery - and

doesn't have the money to live elsewhere.

" I can't afford to make payments on the house and live somewhere

else, " said Mrs. Kalka, 44, a diabetic whose pancreas isn't

functioning.

Said Mr. Kalka, who was hospitalized two weeks with pneumonia and

other problems after trying to clean up the 2006 flooding: " What we

need to do is move, but nobody's going to buy this house. "

Toledo is spending $3 million to widen Shantee Creek. The Federal

Emergency Management Agency has awarded the city a $390,000 grant to

buy six houses, primarily on Crawford, which were damaged during the

summer of 2006.

Still, the Kalkas are among city residents with flooding problems

who have not gotten relief.

Attorney Bazzo said yesterday that he plans to refile within

a few days an expanded lawsuit against Toledo, Lucas County, and

other defendants on behalf of about 100 households affected by

flooding.

For the Kalkas, for example, the lawsuit will seek compensation for

the value of their house before the 2006 flooding, out-of-pocket

expenses, and personal injury damages, Mr. Bazzo said.

Schwartz, spokesman for Mayor Carty Finkbeiner, said Toledo

officials are familiar with the family's situation, and Mrs. Kalka

has talked to the mayor.

Officials, however, cannot comment on a pending lawsuit without

seeing it, he said.

Mrs. Kalka visited Cleveland Clinic in December to be assessed for a

pancreas transplant and was told in February she can't have one if

she returns to her mold-infested house. She is to go back to the

Cleveland Clinic on April 22, when she needs to have another

residence lined up, she said.

Transplant surgeon Dr. Venkatesh Krishnamurthi, director of the

kidney-pancreas transplant program at Cleveland Clinic, said

patients are given medications to suppress their immune systems so

they don't reject transplanted organs.

Those medications make transplant patients more susceptible to

infections in any environment, so living with mold is very risky, he

said.

If she can't receive a transplant, doctors say she must strictly

control her blood sugar level to prevent new medical problems.

The Kalka house has mold in the basement, and it also grows on walls

upstairs, said Mrs. Kalka, a mother of four who is studying nursing

at Owens Community College. One daughter is disabled, and her

youngest child has allergies aggravated by the mold, she said.

" We could probably crack open any one of these walls and it would be

full of mold, " said Mrs. Kalka, a diabetic since she was 11 who has

had various health problems.

Mr. Kalka, 49, said their best alternative would be to leave the

house, although he hates the thought.

" I grew up here, " he said. " But I don't want to go through this

anymore. "

Contact M. McKinnon at:

jmckinnon@...

or 419-724-6087.